KELIGION  IN  SOCIAL  ACTION 


RELIGION 
IN  SOCIAL  ACTION 

BY 

GRAHAM    TAYLOR 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

JANE  ADDAMS 


NEW    YORK 

DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 
1913 


COPYRIGHT,  1913,  BT 
DODD,  MEAD  AND  COMPANY 

Published  October,  1913 


I 


Jf amtlp 

EACH  ONE  CONTRIBUTING  TO  AND  SHARING  IN 
LIFE'S  WHOLE  ENDEAVOUR 


359390 


FOREWORD 

BOTH  the  course  of  thought  and  the  con- 
clusions that  follow  are  the  outgrowth  of 
experience.  They  grew  from  the  ground  up. 
They  bear  the  earth-flavours  of  each  field  of 
endeavour — rural,  pastoral  and  professorial, 
civic.  Wherein  the  conclusions  differ  from 
whatever  prompted  the  course  of  action 
which  led  to  them,  the  difference  is  due  to 
the  trend  of  the  times.  Conservative  ante- 
cedents and  training  laid  upon  heart  and  con- 
science the  burden  of  the  soul.  The  soul  grew 
into  the  whole  self.  The  self  took  on  what- 
ever shaped  it  in  the  push  from  behind  and 
the  thrust  from  about.  Then,  to  apply  the 
simple  Gospel  to  the  saving  of  the  soul  was  to 
extend  and  apply  the  common  faith  to  the 
social  conditions  of  the  common  life.  This 
was  a  reordination  to  ministry,  a  rededica- 
tion  of  the  Church.  Evangelism  became  no 
less  personal  for  being  more  social.  Condi- 

vii 


FOREWORD 

tions  needed  to  be  evangelised,  so  as  to  be- 
come at  least  compatible  with,  and  not  de- 
structive of,  the  Christian  ideals  and  stand- 
ards of  life.  Thus  the  community  became 
both  field  and  force  for  the  Church.  The  city 
became  the  laboratory  for  the  classroom. 
Civics  came  to  share  with  pastoral  sociology, 
and  laymen  and  women  with  students  for  the 
ministry,  efforts  to  teach  and  train.  Social 
settlement  residence  seemed  naturally  the 
next  step  to  the  furtherance  of  this  purpose, 
the  best  view-point  and  vantage  whence  to 
fulfil  it. 

To  fraternise  the  conditions  of  life  and  la- 
bour, to  Christianise  the  framework  and 
spirit  of  the  community,  and  to  humanise  re- 
ligion for  the  promotion  of  these  ends,  be- 
came the  Holy  Grail.  This  quest  of  it  was 
first  traced  for  The  Survey.  It  is  now 
given  more  permanent  form  in  the  hope  of 
helping  to  realise  the  democracy  of  religion 
and  the  religion  of  democracy. 

CHICAGO  COMMONS, 
September.  1913. 

viii 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

FOREWORD      .          .          .          .          .          .  vii 

INTRODUCTION xi 

I      LIFE   AND  RELIGION       ....  1 

II      THE  HUMAN  POINT  OF  VIEW         .          .  19 

III  PERSONALITY  A  SOCIAL  PRODUCT  AND 

FORCE 31 

IV  THE    CALL    AND   EQUIPMENT   FOR   EF- 

FECTIVE   SERVICE       .          .          .  58 

V      CHANGING    CONDITIONS    OF    A    WORK- 
ING FAITH 80 

VI  THE  RELIGION  OF  HUMAN  RELATION- 
SHIPS   105 

VII      THE  FAMILY:  FIELD,  FUNCTION,  AND 

TRIBUTARY  AGENCIES         .          .          .       120 

VIII      SURVIVAL    AND    REVIVAL     OF     NEIGH- 
BOURSHIP   140 

IX  INDUSTRY  AND  RELIGION  :  THEIR  COM- 
MON GROUND  AND  INTERDEPEND- 
ENCE .  167 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

X      ORGANISED  INDUSTRY  AND  ORGANISED 

RELIGION 191 

XI      CITY    AND    CHURCH    RE-APPROACHING 

EACH    OTHER 211 

XII      CHURCH     AND      COMMUNITY — THEIR 

INTERRELATION   AND  COMMON   AIM      228 

EEFERENCES  259 


INTRODUCTION 

BY  JANE  ADDAMS 

THIS  series  of  papers,  now  appearing  in  book 
form,  embodies  an  able  and  conscientious  at- 
tempt to  state  the  actual  relation  existing 
between  organised  religion  and  social  ameli- 
oration. 

The  author,  Graham  Taylor,  has  for  many 
years  been  both  a  clergyman  teaching  in  a 
theological  school  and  a  citizen  actively  iden- 
tified with  advanced  movements  making  for 
political  and  social  reform.  He  sees  the  need 
of  more  religion  in  all  departments  of  life, 
and  he  longs  for  the  help  of  the  churches 
in  the  various  efforts  for  social  amelioration 
which  are  now  too  often  being  carried  on 
without  their  leadership  and  sometimes  with- 
out their  active  participation. 

In  his  careful  analysis  of  our  varied  hu- 
xi 


INTRODUCTION 

man  relationships — in  the  family,  in  the 
neighbourhood,  in  industry,  in  the  city — and 
of  the  changes  they  are  undergoing  through 
the  sheer  pressure  upon  them  of  modern  eco- 
nomic conditions,  Dr.  Taylor  draws  from  a 
wide  and  varied  experience  in  socialised  ac- 
tion. In  the  light  of  such  daily  living  we 
may  perhaps  claim  for  the  ideas  he  sets  forth 
in  this  book  that  they  are  "  true,"  in  the 
definition  of  Professor  James,  in  that  they 
have  been  "  assimilated,  validated,  corrob- 
orated, and  verified  in  experience. ' 9 

Throughout  these  chapters  it  is  as  though 
Dr.JTaylor  saw  t.frpt  grid  waaton  of  rnnrlorn 
life  being  slowtyjiooded  by  an  incoming  tide 
of  religion  which  will  in  time  irresistibly 
bear  away  many  impediments  now  blocking 
the  path  of  social  progress.  The  reader 
shares  the  consciousness  that  these  beneficent 
waters  are  rising  in  response  to  one  of  those 
world  forces  which  inevitably  draw  men's 
wills  into  one  effective  current. 

Dr.  Taylor  was  among  the  first  men  to  in- 
xii 


INTRODUCTION 

troduce  a  systematic  study  of  sociology  into 
a  theologicalinstitution,  at  Chif.a^o  Thpn- 
logical  Seminary.  Therefore,  from  the  stand- 
point of  a  student  of  social  history,  fa- 
miliar with  the  development  of  organised 
religions,  he  knows  that  the  religious  syn- 
thesis, or  rather  the  competing  religious  syn- 
theses, are  constantly  changing  and  differ- 
entiating themselves  in  response  to  special 
needs ;  that  such  adaptations  in  organised  re- 
ligion are  evolved  not  only  because  new  needs 
confront  the  Church  from  without,  but  also 
because  there  is  a  vigorous  minority  within 
the  Church  whom  the  existing  forms  of  ex- 
pression no  longer  satisfy.  It  is  as  a  mem- 
ber of  this  inner  group  that  Dr.  Taylor  has 
written  the  following  pages  in  which  he  di- 
rectly and  fearlessly  points  out  the  adapta- 
tion going  on  in  the  Church  at  the  present 
moment  and  the  need  for  further  changes. 

Because  the  desire  for  just  human  rela- 
tionships has  seized  upon  the  imaginations 
of  a  multitude  of  our  contemporaries,  it  is 
xiii 


INTRODUCTION 

possible  that  a  group  within  the  Church  is 
now  demanding  that  a  new  form  of  social 
action  shall  express  their  yearning  sense  of 
justice  and  compassion,  quite  as  the  school- 
men once  insisted  that  creeds  and  dogmas 
should  embody  their  philosophy,  or  the  art- 
ists that  their  absorbing  desire  for  beauty 
should  be  built  into  cathedrals  and  painted 
upon  the  walls  of  shrines.  This  thirst  for 
beauty  and  order  in  human  relationships  may 
seize  upon  the  religious  spirits  of  our  time 
as  the  desire  for  personal  holiness  and  for 
unbroken  communion  with  God,  in  another 
period  of  history,  drove  thousands  of  men 
to  spend  their  lives  in  hermitage  or  mon- 
astery. 

Certainly  a  distress  of  spirit  for  social 
wrongs,  "  the  burden  of  souls,"  as  Dr.  Tay- 
lor calls  it,  expresses  itself  in  many  ways,  as 
the  most  casual  observer  may  see.  Many  a 
young  person  whose  attention  is  fixed  and 
whose  emotions  are  absorbed  by  the  vast  and 
stupid  atrocities  of  contemporary  life — its 
xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

aimless  waste,  its  meaningless  labour,  its 
needless  suffering — finds  his  only  relief  from 
the  abiding  horror  over  the  existence  of  such 
things  in  the  heated  conviction  that  they  are 
not  inevitable.  He  expresses  himself  in  such 
well-worn  phrases  as  "  there  must  be  some 
way  out,"  "  such  a  state  of  things  was  never 
intended,"  "  human  nature  can  no  longer 
tolerate  it." 

To  some  of  these  young  people  the  Church 
with  its  chance  of  miracle,  as  it  were,  its 
divine  help,  its  faith  so  invincible  and  so  in- 
calculable, offers  itself  as  a  refuge  against 
unaided  human  effort  and  against  the  sci- 
entific estimate  of  the  slow  pace  of  social 
amelioration.  It  is  said  that  human  crea- 
tures, almost  as  much  as  they  require  light 
and  bodily  warmth,  need  the  sense  that  others 
are  thinking  and  feeling  like  themselves.  It 
is  obviously  true  that  "  the  other  poor  little 
brethren  gathered  with  us  under  the  Ma- 
donna  cloak  keep  us  warm  quite  as  much  as 
the  great  mantle  itself."  .  Keligion  has  al- 

xv 


INTRODUCTION 

ways  provided  for  deep-seated  wants  which 
mortals  themselves  cannot  satisfy,  and  has 
ever  comforted  man  for  his  own  insuffi- 
ciencies. Doubtless  there  has  always  been  a 
small  number  of  persons  who  came  into  the 
Church  because  they  found  that  they  could 
not  climb  the  steep  and  thorny  road  pointed 
out  by  life's  noblest  teachers,  because  they 
were  discouraged  with  their  own  best  con- 
scious activities,  quite  as  a  multitude  of  those 
affrighted  by  the  wrongs  and  injustices 
abroad  in  the  world  have  throughout  the  ages 
come  into  the  Church  for  shelter. 

Many  of  these  young  people,  turning  to 
organised  religion  as  it  is  found  in  their  own 
communities,  hoping  to  find  both  simplifica- 
tion of  motives  and  an  assurance  of  guidance, 
are  bitterly  disappointed.  The  desire  to  re- 
lieve, at  one  and  the  same  time  a  personal 
compunction  and  to  utilise  forms  of  social- 
ised activity  to  which  they  have  been  trained 
in  college  and  elsewhere  is  seldom  gratified. 
The  poignant  sense  of  social  wrong  is  all  too 
xvi 


INTRODUCTION 

seldom  mentioned  in  the  Church,  often  not 
assuaged,  and  they  receive  no  suggestions  nor 
directions  for  effective  action.  This  is  the 
more  remarkable  in  that,  of  the  two  leading 
religions  in  America,  Judaism  has  always  up- 
held the  ideals  of  social  justice,  its  great 
prophets  and  great  teachers  from  the  begin- 
ning having  urged  the  redemption  of  the  en- 
tire nation  and  having  considered  individuals 
pious  or  impious  as  they  aided  or  retarded 
this  consummation:  in  the  Christian  Church 
such  religious  expression  in  social  action 
would  be  the  one  thing  able  to  unite  the  ex- 
treme individualism  taught  by  the  evangelical 
churches  with  that  concerted  action  which  is 
only  possible  when  a  central  authority  is  ac- 
knowledged. Such  expression  would  be  a 
veritable  social  growth,  based  upon  the  agree- 
ments of  experience  and  verified  by  the  cur- 
rent events  in  which  all  participate.  Without 
it,  at  this  moment  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
religion  can  adequately  perform  its  tradi- 
tional function  in  the  world. 

xvii 


INTRODUCTION 

A  popular  novel  has  recently  asserted  that 
the  Christian  Church  has  no  right  to  test  the 
\  fitness  of  men  for  its  communion  by  their  be- 
lief or  non-belief  in  a  set  of  creeds  which 
were  written  and  adopted  by  scholarly  ec- 
clesiastics who  directed  the  Church  during 
the  least  spiritual  period  of  her  history.  If, 
as  this  widely  read  book  contends,  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Church  depends  upon  her  ability 
,  to  guide  and  enlighten  men  in  the  complexi- 
ties and  contradictions  of  modern  life,  then 
the  test  of  the  communicant  should  be  his 
willingness  to  bear  a  man's  share  in  the  self- 
sacrificing  labour  involved  in  this  period 
of  maladjustment  in  which  we  find  our- 
selves. 

By  this  test  no  man  has  a  better  right  to 
speak  for  the  Church  than  the  author  of  this 
book,  although  this  is  by  no  means  his  only 
qualification.  No  one  can  be  really  useful  in 
the  long  and  delicate  task  of  social  adapta- 
tion unless  in  addition  to  the  unresting  desire 
for  universal  justice  he  is  informed  on  the 
xviii 


INTRODUCTION 

economic   situation   and  the   changes  being 
urged  by  various  bodies  of  people. 

As  a  sympathetic  student  of  social  move- 
ments,  understanding  the  larger  hopes  of 
men,  in  the  early  years  at  Chicago  Commons 
Dr.  Taylor  every  week  presided  over  a  ' '  free- 
floor  "  discussion  where  men  of  all  social 
faiths  were  made  welcome.  Chicago  was  at 
that  time  characterised  by  a  challenging  dis- 
cussion of  the  existing  social  order.  Each 
school  of  social  philosophy  preached  not  so 
much  its  own  remedies  as  the  necessity  of 
clearing  away  much  of  the  present  industrial 
organisation  before  any  remedies  could  be  ap- 
plied, or  rather  before  social  reconstruction 
could  begin.  Even  among  the  socialists  there 
were  many  radicals  of  more  zeal  than  learn- 
ing, who  felt  that  the  end  of  the  competitive 
system  was  approaching  and  urged  a  moral- 
ity such  as  could  be  applied  only  to  a  world 
on  the  brink  of  destruction.  These  ardent 
speakers,  therefore,  distrusted  all  tendencies 
towards  social  improvements  and  denounced 
xix 


INTRODUCTION 

any  compromise  on  the  part  of  socialists  with 
the  existing  state.  They  looked  askance  at 
any  accommodating  spirit  evinced  by  a  cap- 
italistic society,  and  at  the  growing  humani- 
tarianism  of  an  enfeebled  bourgeoisie.  Above 
all  they  disliked  the  theory  of  the  common 
interest  of  labour  and  capital  for  which  the 
social  settlement  stood,  as  well  as  the  gradual 
interpenetration  of  the  two  classes. 

In  spite  of  these  radical  differences,  Dr. 
Taylor  held  the  respect  of  these  men  of  vari- 
ous social  beliefs,  shall  we  say,  because  of  his 
religious  faith  in  the  unity  and  solidarity  of 
mankind.  He  judged  them  righteously  and 
generously,  not  as  disturbers  of  the  peace, 
but  as  men  who  like  himself  were  concerned 
that  the  knowledge  of  economic  forces  should 
be  intelligently  applied  to  the  progress  of 
society.  He  did  not  despise  half-baked  the- 
ories, because  as  a  student  of  economic  his- 
tory, he  was  familiar  with  the  fact  that  each 
distinct  historical  epoch  begins  with  striking 
economic  changes  which  society  joyfully 
xx 


INTRODUCTION 

hails  as  indubitable  signs  of  progress,  but 
that  soon  after  the  more  sensitive  men  of 
the  epoch  begin  a  long  struggle  to  make  the 
social  readjustments,  and  that  at  last  the 
epoch  ends  with  more  or  less  reorganisation. 

As  he  points  out  in  his  chapter  on  i  '  Indus- 
trial Relations,"  the  abrupt  changes  in  the 
early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  brought 
about  untold  distress,  overcrowding  in  towns 
and  mills,  long  working  hours,  child  labour, 
and  all  the  rest  of  the  dreary  list  with  which 
we  are  so  familiar.  In  the  first  rush  for 
increased  prosperity  no  one  was  concerned  to 
refit  social  conditions  to  the  striking  eco- 
nomic changes.  And  yet  the  epoch  thus  in- 
troduced must  go  through  a  long  period  of 
slow  readjustment  before  society  can  work 
out  a  fitting  reorganisation,  the  outlines  of 
which  are  now  but  vaguely  apprehended. 

In  this  middle  period  of  readjustment  in 
which  our  generation  finds  itself,  many  peo- 
ple, conscious  of  the  social  misery  and  con- 
vinced that  much  of  it  is  unnecessary,  have 
xxi 


INTRODUCTION 

been  brought  to  a  state  of  mind  scarcely  to 
be  endured.  Although  knowledge  of  social 
development  gave  Dr.  Taylor  patience  with 
those  driven  to  rebellion,  yet  his  own  tem- 
perament and  training  place  him  in  the  list 
of  those  of  the  social  reformers  who  believe  in 
a  gradual  modification  of  society.  Here,  once 
more,  he  presents  "  fruits  for  life,"  or  to 
use  a  more  familiar  phrase,  he  justifies  his 
faith  by  long  and  arduous  works. 

This  may  be  illustrated  from  only  a  few  of 
the  public  and  quasi-public  commissions  with 
which  he  has  been  identified  during  these 
later  years,  whose  findings  have  changed 
public  opinion  and  have  resulted  in  remedial 
legislation.  As  a  member  of  the  well-known 
Chicago  Vice  Commission,  he  became  con- 
versant with  the  breakdown  of  moral  fibre 
which  so  easily  takes  place  where  a  large  city 
offers  concealment  for  illicit  relations,  and 
where  many  young  people  grow  accustomed 
to  consider  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  a  legiti- 
mate occupation.  He  vividly  realised  that  im- 
xxii 


INTRODUCTION 

plicit  in  city  conditions  is  the  grave  danger 
resulting  from  the  withdrawal  of  social  con- 
trol at  the  very  time  the  inner  restraints  of 
religion  are  confessedly  less  compelling.  The 
Commission  made  a  large  number  of  pains- 
taking recommendations  for  immediate  ac- 
tion, but  always  considered  the  final  goal  to 
be  the  absolute  abolition  of  commercialised 
vice — a  drastic  conclusion,  founded  not  upon 
vague  ideals  of  human  conduct  but  upon  a 
careful  study  of  human  nature  as  it  reacted 
to  every  possible  temptation  a  great  city 
could  provide. 

He  also  served  on  the  Illinois  state  com- 
missions which  secured  effective  legislation 
to  protect  the  workers  from  dangerous  ma- 
chinery and  insanitary  conditions,  and  to 
safeguard  life  and  property  from  loss  in  the 
mines.  These  laws  led  the  way  to  determine 
the  employer's  liability  for  industrial  acci- 
dents and  diseases,  but  the  recommendation 
to  divide  with  the  employer  and  the  state  the 
burdens  of  these  disasters,  which  were  hith- 
xxiii 


INTRODUCTION 

erto  borne  by  the  worker  alone,  could  not  have 
been  so  willingly  received  by  the  very  people 
to  whom  it  meant  an  increased  expenditure 
of  money,  unless  the  public  mind  had  been 
previously  aroused  to  that  renewed  apprecia- 
tion of  the  value  and  dignity  of  human  life 
which  is  said  to  characterise  all  moments  of 
spiritual  awakening. 

In  the  matter  of  municipal  reform,  Dr. 
Taylor  has  been  actively  identified  with  the 
Municipal  Voters'  League  of  Chicago,  one  of 
the  pioneer  organisations  in  America,  to 
purify  once  corrupt  city  councils  by  arousing 
public  sentiment  against  evil  practices  which 
had  been  unchallenged  for  so  many  years  that 
they  had  been  accepted  as  inevitable.  That 
Chicago  demands  not  only  honest  aldermen 
but  those  devoted  to  the  higher  interests  of 
the  city,  is  due  to  the  fearless  men  who  first 
recognised  and  fostered  a  changing  concep- 
tion of  public  duty  and  insisted  that  the  ideals 
of  Democracy  are  still  operative  in  America. 

Dr.  Taylor  has  lived  for  twenty  years  at 
xxiv 


INTRODUCTION 

Chicago  Commons,  the  social  settlement 
which  he  himself  founded  in  one  of  those 
shifting  city  districts  to  which  people  of  a 
score  of  nationalities  are  drawn  from  all 
parts  of  the  world  in  response  to  industrial 
opportunities  in  factories  and  shops  that 
too  often  exploit  them  but  seldom  unite  them. 
That  political  reforms  were  inaugurated  in 
his  own  ward,  that  the  community  was  rallied 
to  strenuous  endeavour,  could  have  been  ac- 
complished only  through  an  appeal  to  those 
profounder  spiritual  experiences  which, 
transcending  all  differences  of  creed  and 
ritual,  are  at  the  foundations  of  every  re- 
ligious faith. 

"Itrequires  an  unfaltering  courage  to  act 
year  after  year  upon  the  belief  that  the  hoary 
abominations  of  society  can  only  be  done 
away  with  through  "  the  steady  impinging 
offact'oiffact,  of  interest  on  interest,  and  of 
will  on  will."  It  requires  skill  as  well  as 
loving  kindness  to  be  able  to  say  this  to  an 
ardent  young  person  so  that  the  statement, 

XXV 


INTRODUCTION 

even  although  it  contains  the  implication  that 
these  hideous  conditions  will  at  last  be 
changed,  shall  not  come  as  a  dash  of  cold 
water  to  his  ardent  hopes.  It  requires  tact 
and  training  to  make  it  clear  that  because 
each  one  of  us  can  do  so  little  in  the  great 
task~bi'  regenerating  society  it  is  therefore 
more  necessary  that  each_shoul4_dedicate  his 

pmyera  nnH  ndH  hiq  inHiviHnnl  will  fn  fy  un- 
dertaking. 

For  several  years  Dr.  Taylor  performed 
this  service  for  college  women  and  others  who 
met  with  him  at  Chicago  Commons  for  con- 
ferences. It  was  as  a  logical  outcome  from 
this  and  in  response  to  a  community  need  that 
he  founded  the  now  well-known  Chicago 
School  of  Civics  and  Philanthropy.  He  saw 
the  necessity  for  trained  workers  in  every 
field  of  social  endeavour.  Where  ameliora- 
tion comes  through  legislation,  informed  and 
trained  people  are  needed  not  only  to  help 
secure  it  but  to  interpret  and  enforce  the  new 
laws.  So  long  as  the  social  needs,  while 
xxvi 


INTRODUCTION 

glaring  and  obvious,  are  still  such  as  can  be 
supplied  only  by  volunteer  groups  who  must 
experiment  and  make  good  before  the  state 
can  either  realise  the  situation  or  attempt  a 
remedy,  there  is  need  of  trained  social  work- 
ers for  philanthropy.  For  the  teaching  of 
these  two  groups,  and  a  third,  of  college  men 
and  women  trained  in  the  methods  of  social 
research,  the  School  has  gathered  together  a 
faculty  and  staff  of  lecturers,  many  of  them 
distinguished  in  their  own  lines  of  work,  who 
are  loyally  devoted  to  the  president  and 
founder  of  the  School,  and  are  convinced  that 
the  School  is  rendering  a  patriotic  service  not 
only  to  the  city  but  to  the  nation  as  well. 

Dr.  Taylor  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  an 
"  expert  "  adviser  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
term.  His  long  familiarity  with  the  men  who 
are  "  down  and  out,"  both  the  vagrant  and 
the  convict,  has  enabled  him  to  give  advice  of 
great  practical  value  in  their  institutional 
care,  in  the  founding  of  a  Municipal  Lodging 
House  in  Chicago,  in  the  abolition  of  the 
xxvii 


INTRODUCTION 

segregated  district,  in  the  establishment  of 
the  Morals  Court,  and  in  many  another 
reform. 

With  other  worried  and  harried  social 
workers  who  found  themselves  giving  much 
time  to  public  speaking  and  to  pamphleteer- 
ing because  they  felt  impelled  to  share  their 
knowledge  with  the  community  at  large,  real- 
ising that  the  community  alone  could  bring 
about  needed  reforms,  Dr.  Taylor  for  years 
has  given  much  time  to  public  speaking.  He 
constantly  preached  "  the  Christianising  of 
the  social  order  "  from  orthodox  pulpits,  he 
roused  young  men  to  a  sense  of  social  re- 
sponsibility through  series  of  lectures  at  lead- 
ing universities  and  colleges,  he  spoke  before 
summer  gatherings,  before  Y.  M.  C.  A.  audi- 
ences, and  wherever  he  was  constantly  sum- 
moned by  people  eager  for  help  in  under- 
standing the  collective  morality. 

When  the  social  workers,  each  with  his 
store  of  fermenting  knowledge,  met  from  year 
to  year  in  annual  conference,  they  found  that 
xxviii 


INTRODUCTION 

they  tended  more  and  more  to  discuss  the 
economic  conditions  underlying  the  poverty, 
disease,  and  overwork  which  they  were  seek- 
ing to  ameliorate.  The  discussion  of  the 
sources  of  the  low  standards  of  living,  of  the 
protection  of  the  worker  from  the  risks  of 
industry,  grew  in  interest  at  each  meeting  of 
the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rection. That  Dr.  Taylor  was  elected  presi- 
dent of  that  imposing  national  body  for  this 
year  was  a  recognition  both  of  his  personal 
achievements  and  of  his  sympathy  with  the 
newer  developments  in  philanthropy. 

While  many  members  of  the  Conference 
were  content  with  a  mere  general  statement 
of  the  relation  between  unregulated  industry 
and  poverty,  Dr.  Taylor  was  closely  identified 
with  a  small  group  who  felt  that  the  time  had 
come  for  a  more  definite  indictment.  The 
members  of  this  group  were  convinced  that 
some  of  the  worst  conditions  which  de- 
pressed whole  communities  of  working  people 
and  kept  a  promising  generation  of  youth 
xxix 


INTRODUCTION 

from  following  its  better  impulses,  were  lo- 
calised and  definite,  and  although  these  spots 
of  glaring  economic  wrong  might  be  excep- 
tional, their  very  existence  implied  many 
others  only  less  sensationally  wretched.  In 
their  previous  efforts  to  arouse  an  indifferent 
public,  the  social  workers  had  eagerly  wel- 
comed the  help  which  had  come  from  the  so- 
called  "  muck-raking  "  of  certain  magazines 
and  even  of  the  exaggerated  tales  printed  in 
the  daily  press,  the  authoritative  statements 
of  those  economists  who  in  increasing  num- 
bers felt  the  responsibility  for  public  wrongs, 
and  the  cumulative  results  of  the  govern- 
mental investigations  into  industrial  con- 
ditions. For,  while  all  of  these  were  neces- 
sarily national  in  scope,  so  that  each  com- 
munity found  it  easy  to  shift  responsibility 
for  that  which  was  so  widespread,  there  was, 
however,  gradually  brought  about  a  growing 
conviction  that  industrial  conditions  could  be 
bettered. 
In  order  to  provide  definite  information  in 

XXX 


INTRODUCTION 

the  early  days  of  the  settlement,  Dr.  Taylor 
had  edited  a  small  paper  entitled  "  The  Com- 
mons, "  in  which  he  gathered  data  of 
current  efforts  of  social  reform  with  sugges- 
tions to  those  in  industrial  and  civic  strug- 
gles, and  in  social  and  church  work.  Later 
this  publication  was  merged  with  "  Chari- 
ties, "  a  paper  performing  a  similar  service 
in  New  York,  and  the  two  have  since  devel- 
oped into  The  Survey,  a  journal  which  not 
only  reports  constructive  philanthropy  and 
industrial  and  civic  undertakings,  but  points 
out  to  its  readers  the  gaps  and  failures  in 
the  social  structure.  It  was  through  The 
Survey  that  it  was  first  made  clear  that,  / 
with  the  help  of  a  small  number  of  persons/., 
trained  to  careful  economic  investigation,  the 
thorough  study  of  one  community  might  fix 
the  responsibility  where  it  could  not  be 
avoided.  The  local  investigation,  isolating 
the  conditions  from  the  rest  of  the  country 
in  such  wise  as  to  make  them  appear  ab- 
normal, pointed  out  the  wretched  results  of 
*  xxxi 


INTRODUCTION 

such  conditions  in  the  community  itself.  The 
lack  of  protection  against  industrial  accidents 
in  a  huge  steel  plant  had  meant  injuring  so 
many  men  among  the  employes  during  the 
year;  the  insanitary  housing  in  a  given  city 
ward  had  caused  an  abnormally  high  death- 
rate  among  the  babies  of  that  ward,  and  many 
another  conclusion  from  which  it  was  difficult 
to  escape.  When  such  investigation  was  ac- 
companied by  a  picture  of  normal  industrial 
conditions,  vividly  portrayed  as  they  existed 
elsewhere,  and  was  followed  by  an  appeal  to 
civic  patriotism,  in  many  instances  an  en- 
thusiasm for  better  things  was  evoked  and 
even  a  spiritual  unrest. 

But  while  the  conviction  of  sin  could  thus 
be  made  through  an  objective  and  economic 
investigation,  the  regeneration  which  was 
supposed  to  follow  must  of  course  depend 
upon  spiritual  forces.  The  necessity  of  fol- 
lowing each  such  presentation  of  special 
civic  needs  by  a  revival  of  religion  in  that 
particular  city  is  to  put  it  baldly,  but  some 
xxxii 


INTRODUCTION 

such  plan  was  finally  evolved  in  the  effort  to 
match  the  will  power  of  the  community  to  its 
knowledge,  "  to  marshal  the  moral  forces 
capable  of  breaking  what  must  be  broken  and 
of  building  what  must  be  built. "  It  was  at 
once  evident  as  soon  as  the  results  of  an  in- 
vestigation and  the  methods  of  relief  were 
published  in  the  daily  papers,  that  even  the 
most  obvious  social  reforms  require  practical 
means  for  their  realisation  with  the  inevita- 
ble committees.  It  seemed  possible  to  accom- 
plish both  the  spiritual  awakening  and  the 
organisation  through  The  Men  and  Eeligion 
Forward  Movement.  Its  leaders  were  de- 
termined to  win  the  men  of  the  country  back 
to  religion  by  meeting  the  distinctively  mas- 
culine interests,  and  from  the  beginning  it 
was  plain  that  it  was  the  social  obligations  of 
religion  which  rallied  the  audiences  and 
brought  men  under  conviction  of  dereliction. 
It  was  evident  that  the  force  to  be  applied 
to  social  reforms  was  what  Mazzini  called 
"  religious  sentiment, "  that  to  which  he  so 
xxxiii 


INTRODUCTION 

confidently  appealed  for  the  remaking  of 
Italy;  "  from  it,"  he  declared,  "  flow 
strength  and  constancy  in  the  struggle  for 
great  principles,  indifference  to  danger,  noble 
resignation  in  persecution. "  Of  course  such 
an  attempt  to  connect  religious  enthusiasm 
with  civic  and  economic  needs  implied  the 
full  co-operation  of  the  clergy,  and  that  there 
was  a  generous  response  in  so  many  cities 
indicated  perhaps  how  ready  they  were  to 
meet  the  challenge. 

For  the  encouragement  of  these  eager 
young  men  one  may  be  permitted  perhaps 
to  quote  from  that  great  republican  priest, 
Lammenais:  "  There  is  no  power  on  earth 
that  surpasses  or  equals  that  of  the  clergy 
when  they  are  imbued  with  the  genius  of  a 
nation  and  guide  it  faithfully  in  its  natural 
progress  according  to  the  laws  that  direct 
the  procession  of  its  life.  But  if  by  error, 
or  from  interest,  they  set  themselves  in  op- 
position to  those  eternal  laws,  if  they  attempt 
to  hold  the  people  in  a  state  which  it  knows 
xxxiv 


INTRODUCTION 

to  be  not  good  and  so  to  block  the  road  to  the 
future,  their  words  excite  mistrust  and  their 
living  force  is  spent. " 

Dr.  Taylor  published  in  The  Survey 
the  material  for  this  book  as  his  contribu- 
tion to  The  Men  and  Religion  Forward  Move- 
ment at  the  very  time  many  cities  them- 
selves were  beginning  to  ask  for  surveys  of 
their  own  conditions,  willingly  bearing  the  ex- 
pense involved,  as  though  they  were  insist- 
ing upon  a  social  expression  for  their  reli- 
gious sentiment  and  were  asking  to  have  the 
road  laid  out. 

This  book  will  doubtless  be  of  value  to  men 
and  women  of  all  faiths  who  are  eager  that 
the  current  of  their  religion  should  pour  itself 
into  broader  channels  of  social  purpose. 

HULL  HOUSE, 

September,  1913. 


XXXV 


RELIGION  IN  SOCIAL  ACTION 


CHAPTER  I 

LIFE  AND  BELIGION 

LIFE  and  religion  are  alike.  They  were 
meant  and  made  to  be  one  and  the  same.  A 
human  life  consists  in  largest  part  of  its 
relations  with  other  lives.  There  is  no  *  *  self- 
made  man."  If  any  of  us  could  be  put  in 
a  chemist's  retort,  and  by  some  strange  al- 
chemy everything  were  extracted  from  him 
that  mother  and  father,  brother  and  sister, 
playmate  and  schoolmate,  teacher  and  work- 
fellow,  wife  and  child,  pastor  and  partner, 
author  and  speaker,  the  world's  literature 
and  the  life  of  his  own  day  and  generation 
have  put  into  him,  who  would  dare  to  look 
at  himself  in  the  glass?  Could  any  one  rec- 
ognise himself?  Every  one  of  us  would  be 
nothing  less  than  a  blasphemy  of  his  former 
self.  For  each  and  all  the  capacities  and 
1 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

powers  which  constitute  selfhood  and  come 
closest  to  being  himself,  the  individual  is  de- 
pendent upon  and  indebted  to  others.  Every 

"  human  life  is  a  social  product,  produced  by 
the  co-operation  of  many  other  lives.  Every 
one  of  us  who  is  honest  must  put  down  on 
the  credit  side  of  life's  ledger  all  others  who 
have  invested  any  part  of  their  lives  in  him, 
and,  with  Paul,  write  himself  down,  "  I  am 
debtor. " 

t  \  Eeligion,  like  life,  is  relationship.  No 
other  word  is  so  interchangeable  with  it.  It 
is  the  ideal  of  what  the  relation  of  the  one 
man  should  be  to  the  one  God  and  to  every 
other  man. 

The  religion  both  of  Judaism  and  Chris- 
tianity consists  of  their  founders'  ideal  of 
the  relation  of  man  to  God  as  Father  and 
man  to  man  as  brother  which  is  being 
progressively  experienced  by  the  individ- 
ual and  gradually  fulfilled  in  the  life  of 
the  community  and  the  history  of  the 
race. 

2 


LIFE   AND   RELIGION 

The  Bible  is  the  story  of  the  way  in  which 
these  relationships  were  realised,  Godward 
and  manward,  in  the  personal  experiences 
of  typical  individuals  and  in  the  history  of 
selected  family,  national,  and  racial  groups. 
It  is  the  book  of  lives  and  therefore  the  Book 
of  Life.  It  gives  life  through  lives.  It  is 
biography  and  history,  the  life-story  of  God 
and  man.  The  book  of  Genesis  is  Abraham's 
life  put  to  press  between  the  times  of  Ur  of 
the  Chaldees  and  the  eternity  of  the  Lord 
God  Almighty,  whose  friend  he  was,  with 
whom  he  walked  and  talked.  In  Exodus  we 
see  the  patriarchal  households  becoming  the 
people  of  Israel,  the  "  kingdom  of  priests," 
as  Moses'  life  emerges  from  the  age  of  the 
Pharaohs  into  Jehovah's  leadership.  In 
great  succession  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New  bear  the  sign  manual,  if 
not  the  names,  of  the  men  and  women 
through  whose  lives  they  were  produced. 
They  have  the  earth-flavors  of  every  land 
from  which  they  sprung  at  the  touch  of  life 

3 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

from  God's   skies  upon  the  soil   of  man's 
earth. 

Leaves  of  life — God's  life  in  man — consti- 
tute the  sacred  literature.  Human  lives  are 
the  letters,  the  characters,  the  very  types  in 
which  the  Word  is  written.  Men,  women, 
and  children ;  families  and  tribes ;  neighbour- 
hoods and  fellowships ;  nations,  peoples,  and 
races  live,  move,  and  have  their  being  in  this 
Book  of  books,  par  excellence  the  Book  of 
Life.  In  form  and  substance  the  Scriptures 
of  both  Testaments  are  biography  and 
genealogy,  history  and  experience,  folk  lore 
and  personal  epistles,  songs  and  sighs  of  the 
soul  and  of  peoples.  These  are  the  warp  and 
woof  in  which  the  Spirit  weaves  the  pattern 
of  the  religious  life  upon  the  inspired  word. 
David  and  the  psalmists  of  Israel,  and  the 
singers  of  the  Advent,  wrought  into  music 
the  divine  psychology  of  the  human  soul. 
And  in  their  songs  they  rise  to  the  heights  of 
man's  aspiration  and  sink  to  the  depths  of 
his  sin  and  despair.  The  seers  are  the  inter- 

4 


LIFE   AND   RELIGION 

preters  of  God  to  the  people  and  of  the  peo- 
ple to  themselves.  Their  prophecy  is  the 
interpretation  of  history.  Their  history  is 
the  spirit  of  prophecy.  Their  religion  was 
statesmanship.  And  their  statesmanship 
was  so  true  to  their  own  times  that  it  applies 
to  all  times. 

The  Gospels  are  memoirs  of  evangelists, 
memoranda  of  what  they  saw  and  heard  of 
Jesus,  and  of  what  they  told  others  about 
him.  The  first  and  greatest  theologian  of 
the  Church  was  its  first  and  greatest  mis- 
sionary. It  was  in  the  heat  and  by  the  power 
of  his  passion  to  win  men's  souls  that  Paul 
wrought  the  facts  of  his  own  experience  with 
God  and  men  into  the  formulated  truth  of 
the  epistles,  for  the  teaching  of  those  whom 
he  had  evangelised.  Thus  faith  is  identified 
with  life  throughout  the  Scriptures.  But 
none  of  its  seers  or  singers  emphasises  this 
fact  more  than  St.  John,  whose  name  seals 
the  document  with  which  the  volume  of  the 
sacred  book  is  closed.  He  never  reduces 

5 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

truth  to  an  abstract  faith.  Faith  to  him  is 
always  believing,  always  the  verb  of  action, 
always  the  doing  of  the  truth.  He  declares 
"  the  life,  the  eternal  life,  .  .  .  which  we 
have  beheld,  and  our  hands  handled. "  And 
the  final  glimpse  which  this  last  survivor  of 
the  apostles  caught  of  Christianity  trium- 
phant was  not  in  another  world,  but  in  this 
one;  not  of  a  Church,  but  of  a  "  Holy  City  "; 
not  of  a  mere  multitude  of  saved  souls,  but 
of  the  "  nations  of  them  which  are  saved," 
organised  into  a  saved  human  society,  in 
which  "  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men 
and  he  will  dwell  with  them  and  they  shall 
be  his  people  and  God  himself  shall  be  with 
them  and  be  their  God." 

Far  more  than  belief,  the  religious  life  in- 
spired by  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New 
has  been  always  and  everywhere  the  same. 
The  lives  growing  out  of  the  doctrine,  more 
than  the  forms  of  the  doctrine  out  of  which 
they  grow,  stand  the  historic  test  of  catho- 
licity, "semper  ubique."  Beliefs  change, 

6 


LIFE    AND   RELIGION 

vary,  shift  their  emphasis.  But  the  godly 
life,  like  God  himself,  remains  the  same.  It 
is  the  Messianic  life  that  links  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  the  New.  It  is  Christian  living 
which  identifies  contemporary  experience 
with  primitive  Christianity.  The  common 
denominator  of  all  the  sects  is  the  real 
religious  life  being  lived  by  their  mem- 
bers. 

Dr.  Austin  Phelps,  the  great  professor  at 
Andover  Seminary,  thus  accounts  for  the 
Bible:  "  Divine  communications  to  the 
world  have  always  been  made  through  the 
medium  of  real  life.  Living  men  live  a  great 
truth,  and  so  truth  comes  to  the  birth.  The 
Bible  is  almost  wholly  history  and  biogra- 
phy. Abstract  knowledge  is  given  in  it  only 
as  interwoven  with  the  wants  and  experi- 
ences of  once  living  generations.  God  took 
out  of  the  circle  of  universal  history  a  single 
segment,  and  the  result  is  a  revelation.  Men 
live  under  special  divine  superintendence 
and  illumination,  and  the  product  is — a 

7 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

Bible.  So  all  the  great  truths  which  have 
moved  the  world  have  been  lived.  They  have 
been  struck  out  by  collision  of  thought  with 
the  living  necessities  of  the  world." 
.  The  whole  great  field  for  human  service 
and  religious  work  is  a  primary  source  of 
information  and  inspiration.  If  the  Scrip- 
tures contain  the  spring  whence  the  head- 
waters flow,  the  field  marks  the  channel 
through  which  the  river  of  life  streams  forth 
into  all  the  world.  If  the  divine  Word  con- 
tains the  incentive  and  marching  orders  for 
the  work,  the  work  with  the  Word  is  its  con- 
temporaneous expositor.  We  "  know  the 
doctrine  "  only  as  we  "do  the  truth."  When 
the  believer  or  the  Church  has  had  no  use  for 
the  faith,  it  has  been  of  no  use  to  either— 
"  without  works  dead."  The  marching  or- 
ders of  the  Church  are  like  the  sealed  orders 
to  the  navy  which  are  to  be  opened,  read,  and 
obeyed  when  at  sea. 

Nature  is  foundation  for  the  supernatural. 
The  natural  instincts  of  men  are  the  ground- 

8 


LIFE   AND   RELIGION 

work  for  the  superstructure  of  faith.  From 
self-consciousness  we  rise  to  God-conscious- 
ness. And  the  consciousness  of  God  rounds 
out  and  perfects  our  true  self -consciousness, 
in  relation  to  the  selfhood  of  God  and  fellow- 
men.  The  instinct  of  reverence  is  the  basis 
upon  which  are  built  the  spirit  and  forms  of 
worship.  From  the  innate  sense  of  account- 
ability are  developed  the  conviction  of  sin 
and  repentance  toward  God.  Faith  is 
founded  upon  the  universal  experience  of  de- 
pendence, from  infancy  to  old  age,  from 
birth  to  death.  The  yearning  for  fellowship, 
in  the  loneliness  of  the  human  soul,  leads  up 
directly  to  communion  with  the  Father  of 
our  spirits  and  to  the  "  communion  of 
saints. "  Even  those  who  think,  as  Kingdon 
Clifford  thought,  that "  science  has  taken  God 
to  the  confines  of  the  universe  and  bidden 
him  a  respectful  adieu, "  seldom  fail  to  feel 
his  "  sense  of  utter  loneliness  at  the  loss  of 
one's  cradle  faith  "in  the  thought  that  "  the 
Great  Companion  is  dead."  Black  old  "  So- 

9 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

journer  Truth  "  reinspired  the  faith  and 
courage  of  Frederick  Douglass  in  the  strug- 
gle for  the  freedom  of  the  slave  by  rising  in 
the  audience  after  he  had  struck  a  note  of 
despair  and  asking,  "  Frederick,  is  God 
dead?  " 

Thus  all  human  experience  verifies  the  fact 
to  which  St.  Augustine  gave  currency  in  the 
coin  current  of  the  realm,  ' '  Thou  hast  made 
us  for  thyself,  and  our  souls  are  ever  restless 
until  they  rest  in  thee."  So  we  must  look 
in  human  nature  for  the  counterpart  of  the 
divine  ideal  of  man.  For  something  of  that 
ideal  is  written  on  the  hearts  of  men  as  truly 
as  upon  the  sacred  page.  In  seeing  that  the 
world's  great  heart,  and  every  human  life 
that  shares  the  pulsations  of  the  race,  are 
as  truly  made  for  essential  religion  as  re- 
ligion is  made  to  fit  and  form  the  life  of 
every  human  being,  we  discover  the  most 
convincing  evidence  of  religious  faith.  In 
claiming  that  being  religious  is  nothing  less, 
and  yet  can  be  nothing  more,  than  making 
10 


LIFE   AND   RELIGION 

the  most  of  ourselves  and  doing  the  best  by 
others,  and  so  becoming  what  we  were  meant 
and  made  to  be,  by  the  best  help  from  Father 
God  and  brother  men,  we  are  laying  the  most 
natural  basis  for  the  appeal  of  the  "like  com- 
mon faith." 

The  whole  world  of  man's  life  rolls 
through  the  Scriptures.  Having  the  range 
of  its  area,  one  moves  in  a  larger  sphere  than 
his  own  life-contacts  or  any  one  age  of 
earth's  history  will  open  to  him.  The  world 
revealed  there  is  larger  than  the  earth  can 
be  to  any  one  at  any  time  or  place.  One 
meets  there  all  kinds  of  men,  types  of  char- 
acter, and  conditions  of  life  with  which  he 
comes  in  personal  contact,  and  many  more. 
In  its  heavenward  and  earthward  reach,  the 
Bible-visioned  life  "  lives  eternal  life  in 
time,"  as  Harnack  says. 

But  even  this  does  not  compensate  the  re- 
ligious worker  for  the  lack  of  personal  con- 
tact with  fellow  men.  To  know  men  only  as 
seen  in  Bible  characters  and  conditions  is  no 
11 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

x  substitute  for  knowing  our  own  neighbours 
and  our  own  times.  For  the  men  and  women 
of  the  Bible  are  there  as  types  and  interpret- 
ers of  our  contemporaries,  not  as  substitutes 
for  them.  They  cannot  render  us  the  serv- 
ice for  which  they  have  their  being  in  the 
letter  unless  we  let  them  lead  us  out  into  life. 
And  yet  the  fact  that  so  many  of  those  who 
have  deprived  themselves,  or  have  been  de- 
prived, of  these  life-contacts  have,  in  spite  of 
this  fact,  not  because  of  it,  been  able  to 
understand  and  help  their  fellow  men,  so  con- 
spicuously as  religious  biography  has  shown 
them  to  have  done,  proves  the  Scriptures  to 
be  a  very  real  source  for  the  study  of  human 
nature.  Nothing  else  accounts  for  the  suc- 
cess of  these  secluded  lives,  lived  within  such 
limited  areas,  and  restricted  to  such  remote 
knowledge  of  practical  affairs.  But  far 
more  effective  would  these  merely  Bible- 
taught  men  and  women  have  been  if  they  had 
known  more  of  the  world,  and  had  been  able 
with  dear  old  John  Bunyan  to  say,  in  the 


LIFE   AND   RELIGION 

words  of  his  prologue  to  the  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress: 

"  0  then  come  hither 
And  lay  thy  head,  thy  heart,  my  book  together. " 

Through  all  their  history  and  biography 
the  Scriptures  guide  us  to  the  very  orig- 
inators and  founders  of  the  ministries  com- 
mitted to  ourselves.  We  stand  at  the  birth- 
place and  hour  of  their  life  and  power,  within 
the  laboratory  of  their  inmost  souls — where 
their  experiences  crystallised  into  their  mag- 
nificent conceptions,  by  the  forge  and  anvil 
of  their  trials  and  toils  where  were  wrought 
the  tools  and  implements  of  their  achieve- 
ments. Now  watch  for  the  coming  of  the 
impulse  they  receive!  To  many  of  them  its 
coming  is  described  by  the  phrase  which 
forms  the  preface  to  most  of  their  deeds  and 
to  some  of  their  lives,  "  And  the  word  of  the 
Lord  came."  This  impulse  to  work  "  came  " 
to  prompt  Abraham's  emigrant-faith  and 
pilgrimage  to  the  fatherland  (Gen.  xii.  1;  xv. 

13 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

1,  4);  Joshua's  self-conquest  for  the  con- 
quering of  Canaan  (Josh.  i.  1,  7-9) ;  Sam- 
uel's childlike  soul  to  be  the  father  of  the 
prophets  (1  Sam.  iii.  1-3,  21;  iv.  1) ;  Elijah's 
lion-heart  for  every  turn  in  his  mighty  career 
(1  Kings  xvii.  1-5,  9;  xviii.  1,  31,  36;  xix.  9; 
xxi.  17,  28;  2  Kings  ii.  2-6) ;  Isaiah's  humble 
mind  to  "  send"  him  to  sing  the  oratorio  of 
the  Messiah  (Isaiah  vi.  8) ;  Jeremiah's  fal- 
tering faith  to  set  him  to  "  pluck  up  and  to 
break  down  and  to  destroy  and  to  overthrow, 
to  build  and  to  plant  "  (Jer.  i.  2,  4,  19) ;  the 
courage  of  all  the  heroes  of  faith  enshrined 
in  Hebrews,  eleventh  chapter,  that  Westmin- 
ster Abbey  of  Scripture. 

Thus  also  through  the  New  Testament  and 
church  history,  Christian  biography  might 
be  scanned  to  see  how  the  Word  "  came  "  to 
the  great  world-workers.  It  came  on  the 
wings  of  a  mother's  prayer  to  Augustine 
calling  him  from  the  life  of  a  renegade  to 
become  the  greatest  of  the  Church  Fathers. 
It  came  to  Francis  of  Assisi  and  made 


LIFE    AND    RELIGION 

him  every  one's  hero-saint,  to  Xavier 
and  gave  him  the  glow  of  heart  and 
tongue  of  flame  which  lit  up  so  much  of 
the  world.  It  "  came  "  to  the  monk  Mar- 
tin before  he  became  the  world's  Luther, 
and  to  the  Wesleys,  prompting  their  evangel 
of  persuasive  song  and  speech.  It  came  to 
a  Coleridge  and  thus  made  the  Bible  divine 
to  him  because  it '  '  found  ' '  him.  At  the  knee 
of  his  motherly  nurse  it  came  to  a  Shaftes- 
bury  and  shaped  him  in  the  philanthropic 
mould  of  Christian  manhood  and  statesman- 
ship, which  the  hardship  of  his  early  school- 
ing and  the  subsequent  influence  of  political 
life  could  neither  disfigure  nor  destroy.  In- 
spiration inspires  or  loses  its  claim  to  be  in- 
spired. 

A  commission  and  credential  for  human 
service  are  issued  both  by  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New,  to  each  and  all  who  meet  the  re- 
quirements for  work.  The  ideal  of  the  one 
is  "  a  kingdom  of  priests,  a  holy  nation  " 
(Exodus  xix.  16),  and  of  the  other  "  a  royal 
15 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a  people  for  God's 
own  possession  "  (1  Peter  ii.  9,  10).  The 
ministering  membership  is  the  only  recog- 
nised constituency  of  the  churches  of  both 
Testaments. 

There  must  be  a  whole  world  of  work  if 
there  is  to  be  a  whole  kingdom  of  workers, 
a  whole  people  of  priests  commissioned  to 
do  it.  And  there  is.  For  the  extent  and 
diversity  of  the  field  are  as  great  as  and  even 
greater  than  the  number  and  aptitudes  of 
x  the  workers.  Opportunities  for  service 
always  exceed  the  trained  capacities  to  ren- 
der it.  To  the  call  of  God  and  the  demands 
of  this  world  field,  the  Church  itself  and  the 
larger  fellowship  of  human  service  are  the 
response.  All  that  men  need  them  to  be,  God 
meant  his  churches  to  be.  There  are  as 
many  kinds  of  work  to  be  done  as  there 
are  kinds  of  people  and  diversities  of  human 
nature  to  do  them.  "To  each  one  his 
work."  One  need  not  choose  nor  refuse  an- 
other's work.  "  Every  man  is  a  once  spoken 
16 


LIFE   AND   RELIGION 

word."  There  are  few  men  and  women 
whom  God  cares  to  repeat.  It  required  the  "" 
gospels  of  four  evangelists  to  speak  the  Gos- 
pel of  that  one  great  Christ-life.  There  are 
diversities  of  gifts  and  workings,  but  the  same 
spirit.  The  ministering  body  "  has  not  one 
member  but  many,"  and  the  many  members 
of  that  one  body  are  warned  that  "  the  eye 
cannot  say  to  the  hand,  I  have  no  need  of 
thee;  or  again,  the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have 
no  need  of  you.  Nay,  much  rather  those  mem- 
bers of  the  body  which  seem  to  be  more 
feeble,  are  necessary."  So  far  from  per- 
mitting any  fellow  Christian  to  think  that  he 
is  ' l  not  of  the  body, ' '  St.  Paul  neither  allows 
that  the  working  body  can  do  without  the 
service  of  every  one  of  its  members  nor  ad- 
mits that  any  member  can  really  share  the 
life  of  the  body  if  he  does  not  do  his  own 
work  for  and  with  it.  "  God  tempered  the 
body  together,  giving  more  abundant  honour 
to  that  part  which  lacked;  that  there  should 
be  no  schism  in  the  body;  but  that  the  mem- 
17 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

bers  should  have  the  same  care  one  for  an- 
other. "  As  each  of  the  returned  exiles  was 
expected  to  rebuild  the  walls  of  Zion  ' '  over 
against  his  own  house/*  so  the  apostolic  com- 
mission is  "  now,  ye  are  the  body  of  Christ 
and  members  each  in  his  part." 

Life  and  religion  are  thus  seen  to  be  coun- 
terparts of  each  other,  according  to  the 
account  which  the  Bible  gives  us  of  both,  and 
according  to  our  own  experience  of  each. 
Human  lives,  singly  and  together,  and  far 
more  together  than  singly,  are  thus  shown 
to  be  both  the  field  and  force  for  the  work  of 
religion. 


18 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    HUMAN    POINT    OF   VIEW 

OLD  John  Bunyan  describes  each  indi- 
vidual life  as  "  the  citadel  of  man-soul."  He 
thus  speaks  as  though  each  human  being  is 
a  field  for  the  conquest  of  religion  and  a 
force  with  which  it  is  to  win  its  way  in  all 
the  world.  From  the  human  point  of  view, 
the  religious  spirit  may  best  be  seen  on  its 
way  into  the  citadel  to  save,  and  on  its  way 
out  to  serve.  Two  simple  stories  drawn 
from  close  human  experience  will  point  both 
ways. 

A  baby  lay  dead.  Over  its  little  form  hov-' 
ered  the  grief-calmed  mother  and  the  sor- 
row-distracted father. 

"  I  told  him,"  she  said,  "  that  he  is  too 
good  a  man  for  his  job." 

"  What  is  it?  "  was  asked. 
19 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

"  Well,  I  am  a  gambler,"  the  man  replied. 
11  But  I  hate  the  thing,  the  place,  and  those 
who  frequent  it,  and  I  wish  I  need  never  go 
near  it  again." 

"  If  you  do,"  he  was  warned,  "  you  go 

from    the    light    you    now    love    into    the 

darkness  you   dread,  with  your  eyes  wide 

open." 

• "  I'll  see,"  he  said,  and  lapsed  into  silence. 

Then  followed  the  baby's  funeral.  A  few 
days  after  the  father  stood  pitifully  alone  on 
the  threshold  of  his  new  life.  So  lonesome 
was  he  that  he  carried  in  person  a  letter 
which  he  had  addressed  and  stamped  to 
mail.  For  he  thought  that  if  he  came  with 
it,  it  might  open  to  his  empty  heart  some- 
thing of  human  fellowship  for  which  he  hun- 
gered. And  it  did,  as  such  a  letter  could 
hardly  fail  to  reach  the  heart  of  anybody 
who  had  one : 

11  SIR  AND  FRIEND: 

11  I  have  determined  not  to  go  back  into  the  old 
business,  come  what  will.    But  you  must  know  that 
20 


THE   HUMAN   POINT   OF   VIEW 

I  have  great  anxiety  for  the  future.  I  trust  that 
there  will  be  an  opening  so  that  my  wife  and  child 
will  not  starve.  I  do  not  know  that  I  am  under 
any  special  conviction  of  sin,  but  I  do  long  to 
associate  with  good  and  Christian  men  and  women. 
I  am  starved  for  that  association.  If  I  could  have 
it,  I  believe  I  could  soon  be  willing  to  leave  all  to 
God.  You  can  hardly  imagine  the  darkness,  almost 
despair,  that  at  times  I  have  been  in.  But  for 
years  I  had  no  one  to  talk  with,  as  I  now  do  with 
you,  and  I  have  had  to  bear  all,  alone,  without 
human  help.  Words  cannot  tell  you  how  I  long 
to  be  out  from  all  low  and  wrong  associations. 
They  none  of  them  have  any  pleasure  for  me  and 
I  do  not  believe  that  I  shall  be  compelled  to  have 
any  more  of  them. 

"  With  loving  respect, 


Here,  then,  was  a  man  "  starving  "  for 
association  with  good  men  and  women. 
Back  there  under  the  shadow  lay  his  evil 
associations  and  his  bad  associates.  Out 
here  he  had  come  into  the  trailing  light  left 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

streaming  into  his  tear-dimmed  eyes  by  the 
disappearing  life  of  the  little  baby  whom  he 
had  passionately  loved.  If  he  was  to  stay 
out  and  follow  on  he  must  find  new  associa- 
tions, other  places  to  be  in,  better  things  to 
do,  "  good  and  Christian  men  and  women  " 
to  associate  with.  Religion  meant  to  him 
changed  relationships.  And  the  change  of 
associations  was  the  condition,  if  not  the 
equivalent,  of  his  conversion.  To  find  the 
good  God,  he  was  seeking  better  men  and 
women.  Not  only  to  him,  but  to  those  of  us 
who  knew  him,  the  one  hope  he  had  of  the 
divine  companionship  was  in  finding  men 
and  women  who  were  companionable  with 
his  new-found  life.  The  very  existence  of 
his  new  ideals  depended  upon  his  finding 
human  conditions  and  relationships  which 
were  at  least  compatible  with  them. 

But  scarcely  had  this  former  gambler 
found  his  own  place  among  the  kinship  of 
his  new  spirit  than  "  the  way  of  life  "  led  him 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death. 


THE   HUMAN    POINT   OF   VIEW 

^tricken  by  an  occupational  disease  in  the 
only  employment  which  opened  to  him,  his 
manhood  stood  the  supreme  test  of  sacrific- 
ing all  for  the  highest  and  the  best.  When 
asked  whether  he  would  rather  be  as  he  had 
been,  in  the  more  prosperous  ways  he  had 
forsaken,  than  stand  at  the  end  of  his  new 
life's  hard  struggle,  he  exclaimed,  "  Let  me 
be,  I  would  have  lost  my  crown. " 

In  this  instance,  at  least,  the  new  emphasis 
upon  the  social  conditions  and  relationships 
of  life  was  born  out  of  the  old  "  burden  for 
souls."  It  is  short-sighted  to  ask  whether  s 
you  should  work  for  the  individual  or  for  his 
surroundings  and  relationships.  You  cannot 
work  for  one  without  working  for  the  other. 
You  are  not  shut  up  to  such  a  dilemma.  You 
ought  to  work  both  ends  of  the  line  at 
once  if  you  expect  to  meet  the  real  man 
in  the  middle.  For  the  approach  to  the 
innermost  self  lies  through  some  one  or  more 
of  the  concentric  areas  in  which  each  one  of 
us  lives,  moves,  and  has  his  being.  "  Eye- 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

gate,  ear-gate,  touch-gate  "  are  the  avenues 
of  sense  which  lead  to  the  spirit.  And  just 
behind  these  senses  lies  the  thinking  mind, 
the  whole  area  of  the  heart's  emotions,  the 
moral  judgments  and  sanctions  of  con- 
science; still  deeper,  the  religious  feelings; 
and,  towering  above  all,  the  imperious  will, 
that  citadel  to  which,  as  to  imperial  Eome 
itself,  all  roads  lead.  All  around  and  about 
the  body,  mind,  and  spirit  of  every  one  of  us 
also  lie  the  human  relationships,  the  social 
surroundings,  the  civic  frame-work,  the 
hereditary  and  historical  antecedents  which 
go  far  toward  making  us  what  we  are. 
Through  all  these  areas  everything  that  in- 
fluences us  must  pass  before  it  reaches  our 
outer  gate  and  enters  in  to  the  citadel  of  our 
selfhood. 

So  identified  are  we  with  our  surround- 
ings, which  yet  we  strangely  transcend,  that 
the  modern  man  is  less  and  less  able  to  con- 
sider himself  apart  from  them,  or  to  con- 
sider religion  real  if  it  does  not  embrace 


THE   HUMAN   POINT   OF  VIEW 

them.  No  man  wants  any  one  to  tell  Mm  he~~ 
loves  his  "  soul  "  if  he  does  not  love  him.  If 
you  love  my  soul  and  do  not  love  me,  it 
means  nothing.  I  do  not  and  cannot  take  it 
to  be  love  if  you  do  not  care  about  my  life ; 
or  whether  my  wife  can  stay  at  home  to  take 
care  of  the  babies  instead  of  going  out  to 
work  to  help  me  eke  out  the  living  which  I 
have  no  fair  chance  to  earn  for  my  family; 
or  whether  my  children  can  have  enough 
schooling  to  get  a  good  start  in  life;  or 
whether  I  have  a  hovel  or  a  decent  house  to 
live  in;  or  whether  the  city  is  given  over  to 
corruption,  so  that  I  cannot  bring  my  chil- 
dren up  safely.  What  do  I  care  if  you  care 
for  my  soul  and  do  not  care  for  me  and 
mine!  For  what  is  my  soul?  Is  it  anything 
less  than  myself!  Is  it  not  all  I  am  or  can 
become! 

And  this  is  the  way  that  same  spirit,  after 
it  has  become  the  conquest  of  religion,  goes 
forth  to  serve  its  fellows.    Listen  to  this 
other  man's  quest  for  the  Holy  Grail: 
25 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

"  DEAR  PASTOR: 

"  In  the  first  place,  when  we  try  to  help  a  fallen 
brother,  the  odds  against  us  are  too  great.  Last 
night  I  believe  that  man  was  in  earnest.  When  he 
said,  '  I  am  tired  of  sin/  he  meant  it.  He  wanted 
freedom,  peace,  happiness.  What  were  the  odds 
against  him  and  those  new-born  impulses?  He 
went  out  from  God's  house,  away  from  those  com- 
missioned to  do  his  work.  Where  could  he  go  but 
out  into  the  cold,  friendless  streets  of  a  great  city? 
Then  what  ?  He  had  no  home  to  go  to,  no  friends 
to  cheer  and  wish  him  Godspeed,  so  he  must  walk 
the  streets.  Were  there  no  warm,  lighted  rooms 
to  welcome  him  ?  Yes,  but  he  was  to  shun  the  dram 
shop.  He  did  this.  He  passed  by  seven,  with  the 
struggle  which  God  only  knows.  The  door  of  the 
eighth  stood  open.  It  did  look  warm  and  com- 
fortable within.  So  he  finally  went  in,  and  going 
apart  from  the  motley  crowd  of  hangers-on  he 
removed  his  hat,  and  took  from  it  the  little  card 
containing  the  time  and  place  for  meeting  the  new- 
found friends  the  next  day.  Alas,  there  and  thus 
I  left  him.  Perhaps  I  ought  to  have  done  some- 
thing with  him  or  for  him.  But  what  could  I 
do?  Where  could  I  have  taken  him?  Cannot 
26 


THE   HUMAN   POINT   OF   VIEW 

something  be  done  to  lessen  these  odds,  to  even 
things  up,  to  give  the  Lord  a  fair  show  with  a 
man  who  wants  to  be  saved? 


Thus  on  the  field,  in  personal  work,  the 
individual  emphasis  and  the  social  emphasis 
are  seen  to  be  two  sides  of  the  same  thing. 
When  men  rise  up  in  response  to  the  re- 
ligious appeal  and  say,  "  If  you  knew  how  I 
live  and  have  to  live,  and  where  I  work  and 
have  to  work,  and  how  I  earn  my  livelihood, 
you  would  not  be  quite  so  sure  that  I  could 
accept  this  doctrine  of  the  pure  heart  quite 
so  readily,"  they  may  not  be  believed,  but  at 
least  we  can  look  to  see  whether  the  living 
and  working  conditions  are  such  that  the 
way  of  making  a  livelihood  is  the  "  way  of 
life,"  or  the  way  to  death;  whether  the  ways 
in  which  young  people  seek  their  pleasure 
lead  them  up  or  down;  whether  our  munici- 
pal conditions  and  city  government  make  it 
easier  to  do  right  and  harder  to  do  wrong,  or 
easier  to  do  wrong  and  harder  to  do  right. 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

You  cannot  have  a  saved  life  survive 
always  in  unsaved  surroundings.  You  can- 
not have  a  saved  soul  in  a  lost  body.  You 
cannot  be  half  saved,  inside  and  not  outside. 
You  must  save  a  larger  and  larger  part  of 
the  world's  and  man's  human  relationships, 
and  make  his  surroundings  at  least  compat- 
ible with  the  ideals  of  life  which  you  are 
holding  out  to  him,  if  he  is  ever  to  realise 
those  ideals.  The  undoing  of  "  evangel- 
ised "  souls  by  unevangelised  surroundings 
and  relationships  is  the  tragedy  of  modern 
religious  experience.  It  is  often  due,  not 
to  the  lack  of  the  desire  to  be  religious,  but 
to  the  lack  of  that  atmospheric  pressure  to 
protect  and  promote  right  living  which  every 
community  should  and  can  assure  every  one 
who  enters  upon  the  religious  life.  Law  has 
been  finely  defined  as  the  "  steady  pressure 
of  divine  love. ' '  Every  one  of  us  needs  that 
pressure  and  the  steadiness  of  it.  Remove 
it  from  those  of  us  who  have  never  known 
what  it  is  to  be  without  it,  and  who  of  us 


THE   HUMAN   POINT   OF   VIEW 

knows  what  would  happen  to  him?  A  foot- 
soldier  in  the  Civil  War  said  that  the  car- 
nage of  the  battle,  the  crushing  of  the  bones 
of  the  wounded  under  the  cannon  wheels,  the 
agony  of  the  dying,  were  not  so  appalling  as 
the  collapse  of  character,  when  men  were 
taken  away  from  the  atmospheric  pressure 
of  the  restraints  and  impulses  to  which  they 
had  been  accustomed  at  home. 

In  his  Consular  Sketches,  Hawthorne  de- 
scribes the  appearance  of  an  American  cler- 
gyman who  came  to  the  consulate  to  request 
him  to  keep  his  mail  until  called  for.  After 
the  captain  of  the  vessel  on  which  he  was 
to  return  home  had  been  compelled  to  sail 
without  this  passenger  of  his,  the  man  re- 
turned to  the  consulate  so  changed  in  appear- 
ance that  he  was  scarcely  recognisable.  He 
reintroduced  himself  and  asked  for  his  mail. 
Then  Hawthorne,  taking  the  part  of  a  faith- 
ful friend,  held  him  up  to  himself  so  that 
he  could  not  fail  to  see  that  he  had  not  known 
how  weak  a  man  he  was  until  he  had  found 
29 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

himself  alone,  away  from  home,  and  lost  in 
the  crowd  of  a  great  strange  city;  and  that 
he  could  not  trust  himself  away  from  the 
restraints  and  supports  of  his  home  sur- 
roundings. 

From  the  human  point  of  view,  the  social 
emphasis,  therefore,  is  just  as  personal  as 
religion  is,  and  that  is  about  the  most  per- 
sonal thing  there  is.  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  individual  emphasis  is  just  as  social  as  is 
the  life  of  a  mortal  man. 


30 


CHAPTEE  III 

PERSONALITY  A  SOCIAL  PRODUCT  AND  FORCE 

PERSONS  have  always  been  God's  first  chosen 
means  for  fulfilling  his  purposes.  Upon  them 
the  selection,  use,  and  efficacy  of  all  other 
instrumentalities  depend.  This  primacy  of 
personality  is  everywhere  asserted  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New.  In  the  persons  of 
law-givers  and  prophets  Jehovah  revealed 
himself  as  clearly,  if  not  more  closely,  to 
men,  as  by  the  words  they  wrote  or  spoke. 

In  the  New  Testament  the  incarnation  is 
God's  own  emphasis  upon  personality  as  a 
prime  social  force.  His  love  for  the  world, 
wise  enough  to  choose  from  all  possible 
choices  and  great  enough  to  make  the  last 
sacrifice,  could  suggest  no  higher  instru- 
mentality for  his  loving  service.  So,  first  of 
all,  God  gave  all  that  he  is  for  us,  all  that 
31 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

lie  could  be  to  us,  in  the  person  of  his  Son. 
And  nothing  that  he  does  for  us  or  gives  us, 
apart  from  himself,  can  be  compared  with 
what  Jesus  is  to  us.  No  pardon  of  sin,  no 
salvation  of  the  soul,  no  heaven  hereafter 
that  can  be  conceived  of  apart  from  him  who 
is  our  Brother,  Saviour,  and  Life  can  measure 
the  Christian's  "  unspeakable  gift."  Every 
other  gift  "  without  the  giver  is  bare." 

For  Christianity  was  born  with  him  in  his 
manger,  it  appeared  among  men  when  he 
"  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us,"  it  died 
with  him  on  his  cross,  it  was  buried  with  him 
in  his  sealed  sepulchre,  it  was  resurrected 
when  he  arose  from  the  dead,  it  has  been 
going  into  all  the  world  since  he  has  been 
with  us  always,  it  has  been  achieving  its 
ascendency  ever  since  he  ascended  on  high. 
Christianity  is  Christ.  And  the  old  Christ- 
life  is  still  lived  as  personally  as  ever  before, 
if  not  more  so.  After  twenty  centuries  each 
one  of  us  has  the  opportunity  of  knowing 
Christ  better  than  any  generation  which  has 


PERSONALITY 

preceded  our  own.  For  through  all  these 
ages  he  has  been  drawing  nearer,  out  of  his- 
tory into  experience,  out  of  the  letter  into 
life,  out  of  creeds  into  deeds,  out  of  criticism 
into  reality,  even  out  of  the  Bible  and  the 
Church  into  the  daily  walks  and  work  of  the 
world — its  customs  and  laws,  its  government 
and  administration,  its  justice  and  charities, 
its  institutions  and  agencies,  its  commerce 
and  labor,  its  literature  and  art,  and  all  the 
relationships  and  movements  of  our  lives. 

If  the  Church  is  still  his  shrine,  the  whole 
world  is  his  sphere.  The  Good  Shepherd 
still  says,  "  I  know  mine  own,  and  mine  own 
know  me."  But  he  also  reminds  those  who 
claim  him  for  themselves  alone,  "other  sheep 
I  have,  which  are  not  of  this  fold ;  them  also 
I  must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice; 
and  they  shall  become  one  flock,  one  shep- 
herd." So  the  life  of  the  Lord  is  lived  out 
in  the  open,  where  it  belongs,  with  the  stars 
and  the  green  earth,  with  the  trees  and  the 
common  soil,  with  every  other  living  thing 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

which  God  has  made;  so  that  every  one  who 
seeks  may  find  him,  and  in  him  live,  and 
move,  and  have  his  being. 

He  who  was  thus  given  and  gave  himself 
to  us,  from  all  possible  choices  of  agencies 
for  the  fulfilment  of  his  mission,  chose  men 
and  women  as  his  first  means.  His  first  pub- 
lic act  was  to  call  men  to  be  with  him  and  to 
help  him.  Following  the  determination  of 
the  rulers  to  reject  him  when  he  felt  the 
greatest  need  of  help  to  finish  his  work, i  l  He 
called  his  disciples ;  and  he  chose  from  them 
twelve,  whom  also  he  named  apostles,  .  .  . 
that  he  might  send  them  forth  to  preach,  and 
to  have  authority." 

Persons,  then,  are  God's  first  and  chief 
means.  He  chose  them  before,  and  has  used 
them  beyond,  organization,  ritual,  code,  or 
book.  He  has  made  the  efficiency  of  all  those 
other  means  depend  upon  his  chosen  persons, 
however  much  he  made  them  depend  upon 
these  other  means. 

What  is  it  in  the  human  personality  that  is 
34 


PERSONALITY 

thus  first  chosen  and  most  used  in  religious 
and  social  work?  Was  it  any  one  thing,  or 
any  certain  characteristics,  that  he  chose  in 
them  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else  that  per- 
tained to  them?  Was  it  only  John's  heart, 
and  Peter's  zeal,  and  Andrew's  brotherli- 
ness,  and  Paul's  intellect  and  learning  that 
he  chose  for  his  service!  Is  there  anything 
to  be  discovered  in  these  men  that  he  did  not 
choose  for  his  use?  He  had  need  for  all  they 
were  or  could  become.  The  whole  manhood 
of  each  man  was  required  for  every  service 
he  was  called  upon  to  render.  All  that  each 
of  them  was  appears  in  everything  they  did 
or  said  or  wrote.  Our  personality,  there- 
fore, as  chosen  and  used  for  service,  consists 
of  all  that  we  are  or  can  be.  He  whose  own 
self  we  need  has  use  for  nothing  less  than  our 
whole  selves.  The  whole  man  is  his  choice. 
He  chooses  also  for  highest  and  greatest 
use  what  there  is  in  each  one  of  us  that  is 
common  to  all.  As  it  is  his  own  capacity 
"  to  be  touched  in  all  points  like  as  we  are  " 
35 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

that  enables  him  to  touch  us  all,  so  we  touch 
men  the  best  with  his  power  who  can  be 
touched  the  most  by  human  need.  The  num- 
ber of  points  which  we  have  in  common  with 
men  and  at  which  we  touch  our  fellows  meas- 
ures our  practical  and  efficient  service  in 
most  lines  of  Christian  usefulness. 

We  are  apt  to  forget  this  law  of  selection 
and  service  in  our  not  altogether  unselfish 
ambition  to  be  distinct  from  and  to  be  dis- 
tinguished above  others.  Although  there  are 
undoubtedly  place  and  use  for  the  character- 
istics which  do  distinguish  one  from  another 
— an  Elijah  from  an  Elisha,  an  Amos  from 
an  Isaiah,  a  John  from  a  Matthew,  a  Paul 
from  a  Peter,  a  Chrysostom  from  an  Augus- 
tine, a  St.  Francis  from  a  St.  Dominic,  an 
Erasmus  from  a  Luther,  a  Wyclif  from  a 
Wesley,  a  Spurgeon  from  a  Shaftesbury,  a 
Moody  from  a  Phillips  Brooks — yet,  how- 
ever much  a  man  seems  to  be  used  because 
he  differs,  his  larger  usefulness  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  fact  that  he  has  more  in  common  with 
36 


PERSONALITY 

men.  That  really  distinguishes  men — the 
truly  great  from  the  actually  small.  A 
greater  proportion  of  our  common  human 
nature  makes  a  greater  man  for  the  divine 
spirit  to  dwell  in  and  work  through.  Per- 
sonality is  a  larger  instrumentality  than  pe- 
culiarity. The  Son  of  Man  was  distinct 
from  men  in  having  everything  in  common 
with  them,  except  sin.  That  which  distin- 
guished him  from  them  allied  him  to  them. 
He  set  himself  apart  to  God  by  "  taking 
part  "  with  men  (Heb.  ii.  11-18).  His  sanc- 
tification  was  consecration  to  service :  l  '  For 
their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself  "  (John  xvii. 
19). 

Such  is  the  distinction  we  should  seek  if  we 
would  be  used  by  him.  Having  in  us  the 
most  that  is  common  to  others  distinguishes 
us  the  best  in  Christ's  work  for  men.  In  the 
light  of  the  incarnation,  the  most  human  is 
the  most  divine.  In  Christian  experience, 
the  more  the  divine  possesses  us  for  use  the 
more  our  humanity  develops  in  service.  In 
37 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

doing  anything  witih  us  the  Spirit  makes 
more  of  us.  The  use  God  makes  of  a  man 
enlarges  his  manhood  for  further  service. 
Manhood,  womanhood,  and  childhood  are, 
then,  the  means  of  ministry,  to  which  God 
prefers  none  other,  than  which  he  uses  none 
more. 

There  is  something  like  a  reincarnation  in 
a  godly  life.  The  Word  becomes  flesh  again 
in  every  one  whose  human  nature  has  become 
a  partaker  of  the  divine,  and  dwells  on  earth 
among  men  in  every  such  life.  Christian 
character  is  another  and  better  Holy  Land. 
Paul,  the  toiler  and  the  sufferer,  seemed  to 
himself  to  be  the  scene  for  the  re-enactment 
of  his  Lord's  life  and  work  before  the  eyes 
of  men.  He  is  '  '  made  a  spectacle ' 3  —a 
place  for  seeing,  the  stage  of  a  theater— 
"  unto  the  world  and  to  angels  and  to  men  " 
(1  Cor.  iv.  9).  What  is  best  shown  forth  in 
the  world  is,  therefore,  most  wrought  into 
some  one's  experience.  This  thought  may 
well  comfort  us  all,  but  especially  those  whose 


PERSONALITY 

mission  seems  to  consist  only  in  bearing  and 
being.  They,  too,  are  doers.  Bearing  is  let- 
ting God  act  upon  you  and  in  your  stead.  To 
be  wrought  upon  by  him  may  be  the  greatest 
work  for  him.  When  laid  aside  and  seem- 
ingly doing  nothing,  one  possibly  may  be  do- 
ing the  most.  What  he  tells  us  in  darkness 
may  be  spoken  in  light,  what  is  heard  in  the 
ear  may  be  proclaimed  upon  the  house-tops. 
The  "  shut-in  "  may  "  show  forth. "  As  we 
need  what  others  may  be  to  us  more  than 
anything  they  can  do  for  us  or  give  to  us,  so 
others  need  what  we  can  be  to  them  more 
than  anything  we  possess  that  we  can  part 
with.  What  the  parent  is  to  the  child  does 
more  for  it  than  anything  he  can  give  to  it. 
The  child  more  surely  becomes  what  the  par- 
ent is  than  anything  he  says  or  does  to  make 
the  little  one  what  he  desires  him  to  be.  The 
poor,  the  neglected,  or  self-neglectful,  the 
sinning  or  unfortunate  all  need  what  we  are 
more  than  what  we  have.  "  Not  alms  but  a 
friend,"  is  the  motto  of  modern  philan- 
39 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

thropy.  Spiritual  friendship  is  rarer,  yet 
more  needed,  than  alms  or  even  preaching. 
It  costs  more  to  be  something  to  others  than 
to  give  almost  anything  we  have  to  them. 
But  being  measures  doing.  Character  is  the 
fulcrum  for  accomplishment.  We  can  really 
do  for  others  no  more  spiritually  than  we 
are  willing  to  be  to  them. 

This  thought,  that  the  Lord  Jesus  finds  in 
our  lives  a  place  in  which  to  live  his  own  life 
again  before  men  and  angels,  is  most  sug- 
gestively and  beautifully  wrought  out  in 
Denis  Wortman's  Reliques  of  the  Christ,  a 
poem  which  has  in  it  much  of  the  realistic 
mysticism  of  the  mediaeval  hymn-writers. 

"  But  0  my  soul,  as  I  thy  good 

And  evil  ways  explore, 
I  seem  to  see  the  Christ  in  thee, 

His  earthly  life  live  o'er, 
Thou  art  another  Holy  Land 
(Ah,  holy  mightst  thou  be!) 
The  olden  joys  and  griefs  of  Christ 
Repeat  themselves  in  thee. 
40 


PERSONALITY 

"  No  longing  for  His  coming, 

No  greeting  Him  with  scorn, 
No  mountain  for  His  praying, 

No  sea  by  tempest  torn; 
No  cheer  of  friend,  no  wrath  of  foe, 

From  manger  to  the  tree, 
But  finds  its  faithful  counterpart, 

Mysterious  heart,  in  thee." 

Scarcely  more  definite  and  explicit  are  the 
terms  which  describe  his  own  incarnation 
and  life  upon  earth  than  those  in  which  he 
declares  our  union  with  him,  and  in  which 
the  apostles  recognised  his  union  with  us. 
"  Ye  in  me,  and  I  in  you,"  is  the  mystical 
message  of  his  consciousness  and  ours  (John 
xiv.  19-23).  "  It  is  no  longer  I  that  live,  but 
Christ  liveth  in  me,"  is  Paul's  response  (Gal. 
ii.  20).  And  John,  who  leaned  upon  his 
bosom,  whispers,  "  We  abide  in  him  and  he 
in  us  "  (John  iv.  4, 12-17) .  The  counterparts 
to  his  life  in  our  experience  are  wonder- 
fully close  and  real,  as  they  are  suggested 
to  us  by  those  who  live  closest  to  him. 
41 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

He  is  said  to  be  "  formed  "  in  us  at  our  re- 
generation as  at  his  birth;  we  "  suffer  "  and 
are  "  crucified  "  with  him,  "  die  "  and  are 
"  buried  "  with  him;  we  are  "  risen  "  and 
"glorified"  with  him.  It  reads  like  the 
repetition  of  the  gospels  of  the  letter  in  the 
book  of  his  people's  life.  In  Christian  ex- 
perience there  is  a  continuous  reproduction 
of  the  life  of  Christ.  It  is  a  perpetual  incar- 
nation. The  Word  becomes  flesh  as  faith 
becomes  life,  as  creed  becomes  deed.  Christ 
is  recognised  as  dwelling  among  men  in  no 
way  so  soon  or  so  surely  as  in  the  Christian's 
life. 

The  continuation  of  -  his  work  in  and 
through  ours  is  also  implied.  The  preface 
to  the  Book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
(Acts  i.  1)  implies  that  its  real  title  should 
be  the  Book  of  His  Acts.  It  was  Peter  who 
took  the  lame  man  by  the  right  hand  at  the 
beautiful  gate  and  raised  him  up.  But  when 
he  and  John  went  to  their  own  company  they 
prayed  "  while  thou  stretchest  forth  thy  hand 
42 


PERSONALITY 

to  heal  "  (Acts  iv.  30).  "  According  to  the 
working  of  his  power, "  Paul  declares  him- 
self to  have  been  made  a  minister  (Eph.  iii. 
7),  and  describes  himself  as  "  striving"  to 
accomplish  the  ends  of  his  ministry  ' l  accord- 
ing to  his  working,  which  worketh  in  me 
mightily  "  (Col.  i.  29).  "  I  laboured,"  said 
he,  "  yet  not  I,  but  the  grace  of  God  which 
was  with  me  "  (1  Cor.  xv.  10).  Our  own  sal- 
vation as  that  of  others  we  "  work  out," 
"  for  it  is  God  who  worketh  in  you  both  to 
will  and  to  work  "  (Phil.  ii.  12,  13). 

' '  This  wonderful  change  in  Africa,  bringing 
light  out  of  darkness,  removing  superstition  and 
cruelty,  unyoking  the  woman  from  the  plough,  tak- 
ing the  witch  from  the  stake,  loosening  the  chains 
of  the  slave,  and  changing  the  slave-catcher  into 
a  brother — who  did  it?  Who  did  it?  There  are 
two  different  names  given  to  him.  Sometimes  he 
is  named  God,  sometimes  he  is  named  David  Liv- 
ingstone; God  is  in  him,  sending  him;  and  if 
Livingstone  with  God  in  him  is  there,  then  God 
is  working  in  this  marvellous  and  mighty 

change." 

43 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

But  the  apostles'  thought  goes  further  than 
identifying  Christ  with  the  individual  Chris- 
tian only.  They  suggest  that  God  effects 
greater  results  through  us  unitedly  than  any 
one  of  us,  apart  from  others,  can  accomplish, 
however  wholly  consecrated  one  may  be,  or 
however  much  in  common  with  men  and  God 
one  may  have.  Paul  declares  that  "  we  all 
attain  unto  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  full- 
grown  man."  In  thus  emphasizing  "  we 
all,"  instead  of  each  one  of  us,  he  gives  the 
suggestion  of  all  coming  together  into  one; 
of  the  putting  together  of  all  that  we  are  into 
a  common  life — all  our  hearts  into  one 
greater  heart,  all  our  little  lives  into  one 
larger  life.  Moreover,  he  speaks  of  us  as 
"  fitly  framed  and  knit  together."  Each  is 
dependent  for  the  supply  of  what  is  neces- 
sary to  all  upon  being  "  joined  "  to  every 
other.  "All  the  body  "—to  which  he 
likened  us  when  we  thus  grow  together — in- 
creases and  is  built  up  in  its  common  life  and 
44 


PERSONALITY 

love,  "  according  to  the  working  in  due  meas- 
ure of  each  several  part."  What  "  we  all  " 
are,  when  thus  merged  and  blended  together 
into  "  a  fullgrown  man,"  is  a  great  common 
life  made  up  of  many  lives,  a  corporate  per- 
sonality consisting  of  many  personalities.  It 
is  like  the  body  of  one  great  person.  Paul 
calls  it  "  His  body."  Addressing  the  Co- 
rinthian Christians,  he  reminds  them  and  us 
of  what  they  and  we  really  are, i  *  Now  ye  are 
the  body  of  Christ,  and  members  each  in  his 
part  "  (Compare  Eph.  iv.  12-16  and  1  Cor. 
xii.  12-27). 

This  then  is  the  grandest  definition  of  the 
ideal  and  function  of  the  Church  and  also  the 
most  practical  conception  of  its  mission 
among  men.  It  is  all  of  us  growing  together 
into  "  a  fullgrown  man  ";  becoming  "  his 
body,"  "  the  fulness  of  him  that  filleth  all  in 
all  ";  living,  loving,  and  laboring  among 
men,  "  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of 
the  fulness  of  Christ."  His  personality  and 
ours  in  one ;  his  spirit  in  our  lives,  his  mind 
45 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

in  our  thought,  his  heart  beating  in  our 
hearts,  his  eyes  looking  through  ours,  our 
hands  in  his  pierced  hands  lifting  like  one 
hand,  our  feet  going  about  as  his,  doing 
good;  this  is  "  the  Church  which  is  his 
body,"  something  like  a  divine-human  per- 
sonality again  on  earth,  dwelling  and  work- 
ing in  every  community. 

This  definition  in  the  letter  is  not  larger 
than  that  which  we  may  read  in  life's  need 
of  the  Church's  ministry.  What  men  needed 
it  to  be,  that  its  founder  meant  it  to  be.  They 
need  it  to  be  among  the  sinning,  suffering, 
struggling,  sorrowing,  aspiring,  despairing 
people  of  to-day  what  he  was  among  such 
when  he  "  dwelt  among  us  "  in  the  body. 
We  need  the  Church  to  be  his  visible  repre- 
sentative among  us,  the  manifestation  of  his 
presence  in  our  midst,  the  medium  of  his 
ministry  to  us ;  to  be  what  he  was  and  is  to 
us  all,  to  express  what  he  feels  and  thinks 
for  us  all,  to  do  what  he  did  and  would  do  for 
us  all.  The  personal,  organized,  and  unified 
46 


PERSONALITY 

ministry  which  the  world  needs  of  the 
Church,  and  the  Church  was  meant  to  fulfil  in 
the  world,  is  all  included  in  this  definition — 
"  His  body." 

This  Scriptural  idea  of  each  individual  life 
in  its  personal  relation  to  Christ  and  fellow 
men  is  remarkably  substantiated,  illustrated, 
and  applied  in  many  particulars  by  the  mod- 
ern view  of  the  social  nature  of  personality. 
Modern  psychology  traces  our  very  selfhood 
to  what  others  have  contributed  to  us  or 
done  for  us. 

Self-consciousness  is  our  most  personal 
possession.  It  comes  nearer  being  our  very 
self  than  anything  else  we  possess.  It  has 
been  taken  for  granted  to  be  something  for 
which  we  are  indebted  to  God  and  our  own 
natures  and  not  to  others.  But  those  who 
are  gaining  new  and  deeper  insight  into  child 
psychology  assure  us  that  even  our  self- 
consciousness  is  due  in  such  part  to  others 
that  it  cannot  be  accounted  for  apart  from 
47 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

them.  Thus  Professor  Koyce,  of  Harvard 
University,  writing  of  the  development  of 
self-consciousness  in  the  infant  child,  informs 
us: 

"  As  early  as  the  second  month  it  distinguishes 
its  mother's  or  nurse's  touch  in  the  dark.  This 
is  the  child's  very  first  step  toward  a  sense  of  the 
qualities  which  distinguish  persons  .  .  .  the  ego 
(that  is,  the  I)  and  the  alter  (that  is,  the  other) 
are  thus  born  together  .  .  .  are  thus  essentially 
social.  My  sense  of  myself  grows  by  imitation  of 
you,  and  my  sense  of  yourself  grows  in  terms  of 
my  sense  of  myself." 

Prof.  J.  Mark  Baldwin,  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  after  quoting  these  and  other 
opinions  of  Professor  Eoyce,  sums  up  and 
adopts  them  in  these  words : 

"  The  essence  of  the  theory  is  that  the  child 
gets  his  material  for  the  personality  sense  from 
persons  around  him  by  imitation.  So  that  his 
growing  sense  of  self  is  constantly  behind  his 
growing  sense  of  others." 
48 


PERSONALITY 

Tennyson  long  anticipated  these  scientific 
conclusions  of  the  psychologists  in  his  seer- 
like  insight  into  the  developing  self  so  beau- 
tifully described  in  these  well-known  lines 
from  In  Memoriam: 

"  The  baby  new  to  earth  and  sky 

What  time  his  tender  palm  is  prest 
Against  the  circle  of  the  breast, 
Has  never  thought  that  '  this  is  I.' 

"  But  as  he  grows  he  gathers  much, 

And  learns  the  use  of  '  I  '  and  '  me/ 
And  finds  '  I  am  not  what  I  see, 
And  other  than  the  things  I  touch.' 

"  So  rounds  he  to  a  separate  mind 

From  whence  clear  memory  may  begin, 
As  through  the  frame  that  binds  him  in 
His  isolation  grows  defined. 

*  This  use  may  lie  in  blood  and  breath, 
Which  else  were  fruitless  of  their  due, 
Had  man  to  learn  himself  anew 
Beyond  the  second  birth  of  death." 

For  our  use  of  the  very  faculties  upon 
which  our  self -development  depends  we  are 

49 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

as  dependent  upon  others  as  we  are  for  our 
birth  and  self-consciousness.  We  could  not 
teach  ourselves  to  talk  unless  we  heard 
the  speech  of  others.  The  only  reason 
why  those  born  deaf  are  mute  is  that 
they  have  not  heard  others  speak,  and 
so  do  not  put  their  own  vocal  organs  to 
use. 

Schools  and  all  other  educational  means 
and  agencies  are  made  possible  only  by  the 
co-operation  of  many.  To  educate  each 
child,  the  state  or  Church  or  private  agencies 
invest  personal  and  financial  resources,  and 
teachers  and  pupils  co-operate.  The  univer- 
sity is  the  universal  life  helping  the  indi- 
vidual to  share  the  experience  and  achieve- 
ment of  the  race. 

Dr.  William  T.  Harris,  one  of  our  greatest 
national  commissioners  of  education,  has 
given  us  our  best  definition  of  education  in 
these  memorable  words : 

"  Social  life  is  the  realisation  of  ideal  man  in  a 
far  higher  sense  than  the  life  of  the  mere  individual 
50 


PERSONALITY 

realises  it.  Thinking,  reason,  a  rational  moral  will, 
a  religious  culture  in  the  soul  are  not  of  the  par- 
ticular man,  but  they  are  the  ideal  of  the  species 
and  denote  the  ascent  of  the  individual  into  the 
species.  This  is  not  a  loss  of  the  individuality, 
but  a  deepening  of  individuality  into  personality, 
which  is  the  unique  phenomenon  found  in  social 
science. " 

In  effect  he  defines  culture  to  be  the  rise  of 
the  individual  into  the  life  of  the  species. 
That  is,  we  are  educated  only  as  we  let  an- 
other individual,  age,  or  race  into  our  lives. 
For  the  uneducated  person  is  the  one  who  is 
shut  up  to  his  own  little  experience  and  ob- 
servation, who  starts  all  over  again  by  him- 
self alone,  just  as  though  no  one  had  lived 
before  him  and  no  one  were  living  about  him. 
But  as  we  let  the  experience  and  observation, 
the  successes  and  failures,  the  knowledge  and 
aspiration  of  others  into  ourselves,  back 
goes  our  sky-line,  out  goes  our  horizon, 
greater  grows  the  world  in  which  we  live,  and 
larger  is  our  own  life. 
51 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

Professor  Baldwin's  conclusions  are  there- 
fore sound: 

"  Man  is  not  a  person  who  stands  up  in  his  iso- 
lated majesty,  meanness,  passion,  or  humility,  and 
sees,  hits,  worships,  fights,  or  overcomes  another 
man,  who  does  the  opposite  things  to  him  ...  so 
that  he  can  be  considered  a  unit.  On  the  contrary, 
a  man  is  a  social  outcome  rather  than  a  social  unit. 
He  is  always,  in  his  greatest  part,  also  some  one 
else.  Social  acts  of  his — that  is,  acts  which  may 
not  prove  anti-social — are  his  because  they  are 
society 's  first ;  otherwise  he  would  not  have  learned 
them  nor  have  any  tendency  to  do  them.  Every- 
thing that  he  learns  is  copied,  reproduced,  assim- 
ilated from  his  fellows.  When  he  acts  quite  pri- 
vately, it  is  always  with  a  boomerang  in  his  hand ; 
and  every  use  he  'makes  of  his  weapon  leaves  its 
indelible  impression  both  upon  the  other  and  upon 
him." 

If  all  this  be  true,  then  education  is  a  debt, 
culture  an  obligation,  which  can  only  be  hon- 
estly discharged  by  turning  back  into  the 
common  life  the  best  results  of  what  others 
52 


PERSONALITY 

have  made  it  possible  for  us  to  acquire.  He 
or  she  who  appropriates  the  self -development 
acquired  through  education  solely  to  himself 
or  herself,  who  thus  takes  as  much  out  of 
others  and  gives  as  little  back  as  possible,  dis- 
honestly misappropriates  what  was  given  for 
another  purpose. 

When  with  his  family  the  writer  was  about 
to  enter  upon  settlement  residence  at  Chicago 
Commons,  he  was  thus  challenged  by  a 
Eussian- Jewish  workingman:  "  I  suppose 
you  know  that  you  owe  it  to  us  to  share  what 
you  are  and  have  with  us.  Well,  you  do,  for 
while  you  are  learning,  we  are  labouring ;  and 
if  we,  who  may  have  as  much  capacity  for 
learning  as  you,  cease  to  labour,  you  would 
have  no  leisure  to  learn. "  On  leaving  that 
same  settlement  household  for  his  university 
course,  a  resident  was  followed  to  Harvard 
by  a  letter  from  his  friend,  also  a  Jewish 
workingman,  to  this  fine  effect : '  '  Do  not  for- 
get that  your  education  cost  more  than  you  or 
your  father  can  ever  pay  for.  Therefore  make 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

return  in  glorious  light  for  all  the  oil  that  is 
being  poured  into  the  lamp  of  your  life." 

Every  school-trained  boy  and  girl,  man  and 
woman,  should  as  plainly  be  made  aware  that 
neither  the  family  nor  the  Church,  neither 
the  state  nor  private  endowments  provide 
educational  advantages  for  exclusively  per- 
sonal use.  The  service  of  others  or  of  the 
public  is  expected  of  every  one  whom  others 
y  ^educate.  And  there  is  no  self-educated  per- 
•  son,  as  there  is  no  "  self-made  "  man.  Those 
who  think  they  have  made  themselves  gen- 
erally worship  their  maker. 

Selfhood  rounds  itself  out  by  service.  It 
culminates  in  offering  the  highest  expression 
of  our  best  selves  to  others.  Self-sacrifice 
in  service  is  really,  therefore,  self-develop- 
ment. Phillips  Brooks  has  given  us  the  fin- 
est balance  between  these  two  apparently 
opposite,  but  actually  supplemental  elements 
of  a  normal  life : 

* '  And  so  these  two,  self-culture  and  self-sacrifice, 
both  present  themselves  as  true  and  pressing  duties 


PERSONALITY 

of  a  human  existence.  No  man  has  any  right  to 
contemplate  the  life  before  him,  no  man  has  any 
right  to  be  living  at  any  moment  of  his  life,  unless 
he  knows  himself  to  be  doing  all  that  he  can  to 
develop  his  soul  and  make  it  shine  with  its  peculiar 
lustre  in  the  firmament  of  existence.  And  no  man 
has  a  right  to  be  living  at  any  moment  unless  he 
is  also  casting  himself  away  and  entering  into  the 
complete  and  devoted  service  of  his  fellow  men. 
In  order  to  cultivate  himself  more  completely,  the 
man  is  to  sacrifice  himself  more  completely.  In 
order  to  sacrifice  himself  more  completely,  he  is 
to  cultivate  himself  more  completely.  These  two 
great  principles  of  existence  will  only  come  into 
harmony  with  one  another  in  mutually  adminis- 
tering to  one  another,  as  they  pour  themselves  out 
together  and  mingle  with  one  another,  and  find 
themselves  a  part  of  the  great  plan  of  God.  Self- 
culture  and  self-sacrifice — these  two  have  been  the 
great  inspiring  forces  of  existence  in  all  ages,  in 
every  land." 

If  he  who  reads  shrinks  back  from  this  as 
from  self -extinction,  he  should  listen  to  what 
55 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

the  apostle  Paul  said  to  those  who  were  long 
ago  overheard  murmuring,  "  This  is  to  die." 
"  Yes,"  replied  the  apostle,  "  ye  are  dead, 
and  your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 
When  Christ  who  is  our  life  shall  appear, 
then  shall  ye  also  appear  with  him  in  glory." 
Thus  all  the  great  servants  of  God  and  men 
have  disappeared  in  the  hidden  life;  Moses 
to  deliver  Israel  from  Egypt,  Elijah  to  save 
Israel  from  Ahab,  Paul  himself  to  turn  to 
the  Gentiles,  David  Livingstone  to  heal ' '  the 
open  sore  of  the  world  "  in  the  dark  conti- 
nent of  Africa,  Florence  Nightingale  to  as- 
suage the  horrors  of  war  as  the  angel  of  the 
battlefield,  John  Howard  to  deliver  the  cap- 
tives from  the  dungeons  of  Europe,  Lord 
Shaftesbury  to  do  justice  to  England's  work- 
ing men,  women,  and  children  in  the  factory 
acts,  Lincoln  to  save  the  union  which  could 
not  exist  "  half  free  and  half  slave."  But 
these  all  reappear  in  the  glory  of  our  saved 
country,  of  England's  industrial  democracy, 
of  furled  battle-flags,  and  in  the  rising  of 
56 


PERSONALITY 

"  the  sun  of  righteousness  with  healing  in  his 
wings  "  over  all  lands  and  peoples.  Time 
enough,  then,  for  us  to  reappear  from  our 
hidden  life  when  Christ  appears  in  the  glory 
of  what  we  are  working  with  him  to  achieve. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    CALX.   AND   EQUIPMENT   FOB   EFFECTIVE 
SERVICE 

Two  great  needs  are  found  to  be  in  a  dead- 
lock everywhere.  Not  only  more  workers 
but  more  kinds  of  workers  are  everywhere 
imperatively  needed.  And  in  nearly  every 
community  there  are  undeveloped  capacities 
and  untrained  aptitudes,  not  only  unutilised 
but  actually  perishing  because  unused  or  mis- 
directed. These  personal  resources  are  ade- 
quate and  diversified  enough  to  meet  the  need 
of  almost  every  community.  Much  of  the 
energy  and  ability  of  our  youth,  aroused  and 
spending  itself  with  glorious  abandon,  is  mis- 
directed and  "  spent. "  How  shall  we  apply 
this  precious  power?  Talents  of  the  first  or- 
der lie  folded  in  the  napkin  of  manly  reserve 
and  womanly  delicacy.  People's  willingness 
58 


EFFECTIVE    SERVICE 

to  work  is  gradually  overcome  by  their  fear 
that  they  cannot  do  anything,  or  by  their  cer- 
tainty that  they  cannot  do  it  well.  They  thus 
become  unwilling  to  attempt  that  for  which 
they  come  to  believe  they  have  no  ability  nor 
aptitude.  How  shall  we  put  them  to  work? 
Our  leaders  are  trying  to  do  the  work  of  a 
thousand  people,  instead  of  putting  a  thou- 
sand people  to  work.  Is  there  any  way  of 
doing  so  except  by  making  each  one  con- 
scious of  what  he  or  she  really  is,  how  he  or 
she  is  actually  equipped  by  nature  and  ac- 
quirement to  serve,  and  of  the  opportunities 
available  to  train  himself  or  herself  for 
service? 

We  have  already  gleaned  Scriptural  and 
scientific  reasons  for  thinking  that  our  per- 
sonality, which  consists  in  what  we  share 
with  others,  measures  our  capacity  to 
serve  them  by  the  number  of  points  at  which 
we  come  in  contact  and  are  identified 
with  them ;  that  our  individuality  is  as  neces- 
sary and  useful  in  sharpening  up  our  apti- 
59 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

tndes  to  meet  those  points  of  contact.  Both 
personality  and  individuality  are  required  to 
make  any  one  serviceable. 

Phillips  Brooks'  greatest  description  of 
preaching  and  preparation  for  it  as  prac- 
tically describes  the  pith  and  point  of  all 
other  social  work : 

"  Truth  through  personality  is  our  description 
of  real  preaching.  It  has  in  it  two  essential  ele- 
ments, truth  and  personality.  Neither  of  those  can 
it  spare  and  still  be  preaching.  The  truth  must 
come  really  through  the  person,  not  merely  over 
his  lips,  not  merely  into  his  understanding  and 
out  through  his  pen.  It  must  come  through  his 
character,  his  affections,  his  whole  intellectual  and 
moral  being.  It  must  come  genuinely  through 
him. 

' '  In  balancing  the  use  to  be  made  of  personality 
and  of  individuality,  the  principle  of  personality 
once  admitted  involves  the  individuality  of  every 
preacher.  Every  preacher  should  utter  the  truth 
in  his  own  way  and  according  to  his  own  nature. 
It  must  come  not  only  through  man  but  through 
men.  If  you  monotonise  men  you  lose  their  human 
60 


EFFECTIVE    SERVICE 

power  to  a  large  degree.  If  you  could  make  all 
men  think  alike,  it  would  be  very  much  as  if  no 
man  thought  at  all — as,  when  the  whole  earth  moves 
together  with  all  that  is  upon  it,  everything  seems 
still." 

His  conclusion  is  as  true  of  all  ministering 
as  it  is  of  "  the  ministry, "  that  the  prepara- 
tion for  all  human  service 

"  must  be  nothing  less  than  the  making  of  a  man. 
It  cannot  be  the  mere  training  to  certain  tricks. 
It  cannot  be  even  the  furnishing  of  abundant 
knowledge.  It  must  be  nothing  less  than  the 
kneading  and  tempering  of  a  man's  whole  nature 
till  it  becomes  of  such  a  consistency  and  quality 
as  to  be  capable  of  transmission." 

Such  work  is  done  only  by  men  and  women 
ministering,  and  the  ministering  is  always 
and  everywhere  measured  by  the  manhood 
and  womanhood  of  those  who  minister. 

Light  is  greatly  needed  upon  the  call  to 
usefulness.  The  conception  of  what  a  1 1  call >: 
61 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL  ACTION 

is,  not  only  keeps  many  young  men  out 
of  the  ministry,  but  prevents  the  great 
majority  of  church-members,  and  others  who 
have  the  religious  spirit,  from  recognising 
and  responding  to  their  varied  callings.  The 
general  warrant  for  every  one  doing  some- 
thing may  be  acknowledged ;  the  need  for  all 
that  can  be  done  may  not  be  denied ;  the  de- 
sire and  impulse  to  do  more  may  be  admitted 
in  a  conscience-stricken  way;  the  accessible 
sources  of  knowledge  concerning  the  work 
and  its  message  may  be  well  known ;  and  yet, 
if  the  consciousness  of  the  special  call  or 
personal  duty  be  lacking,  there  may  not  be 
sufficient  momentum  given  by  all  these  gen- 
eral considerations  to  carry  even  a  devout 
soul  over  specific  obstacles. 

The  study  of  the  call  to  discipleship  (John 
i.  35-51)  and  the  call  to  apostleship  (Mark 
iii.  13-15)  discloses  the  way  by  which  the 
worker  is  drawn  to  the  work.  Here,  and 
throughout  Scripture  history,  it  is  a  process 
of  selection  by  which  work  and  workers  are 
62 


EFFECTIVE   SERVICE 

brought  together.  Far  too  much  emphasis 
has  been  laid  upon  the  invariable  necessity 
of  a  direct,  supernaturally  expressed  "  call," 
such  as  some  of  the  prophets  and  the  apos- 
tles are  supposed  to  have  actually  heard  from 
heaven.  How  far,  even  in  these  few  most 
exceptional  cases,  the  call  may  have  been 
heard  only  within,  and  how  far  what  was 
'  '  said  '  *  found  its  utterance  to  them  through 
such  circumstances  and  experiences  as  are 
common  to  the  religious  life,  is  a  fruitful 
theme  of  study.  Even  some  of  the  most 
direct  calls  made  upon  the  workers  of  Bible 
days  came  to  them  out  of  plainly  dis- 
cernible processes  of  experience,  by  which 
they  had  been  gradually  prepared  to  be 
called,  and  without  which  they  could 
hardly  have  been  capable  of  hearing  or 
obeying. 

Excepting  these  few  extraordinary  cases, 

the  "  call  "  by  which  the  person  was  led  into 

discipleship  and  service  was  a  process.    In 

John's  Chapter  of  Eurekas,  those  whom  the 

63 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

seeker  "  finds  "  exultingly  cry,  "  We  have 
found  him!  "  They  whom  he  thus  silently 
sought  had  been  silently  seeking,  until  at  last 
they  needed  Jesus  only  to  approach,  and  John 
only  to  look  upon  them  and  speak,  in  order 
to  recognise  their  call  to  follow  and  serve 
him.  Thus  drawn,  they  run  after  him. 
Seeking,  they  are  found.  Beneath  the  con- 
sciousness of  their  response,  and  accounting 
for  it,  is  to  be  discerned  the  operation  of  a 
great  law  of  spiritual  selection. 

There,  on  the  Jordan's  banks,  as  every- 
where else  since,  there  have  been  "  diversi- 
ties of  workings,  but  the  same  God."  As 
John  the  Baptist  introduced  Andrew  to 
Jesus,  and  Andrew  '  '  findeth  first  his  own 
brother  Simon,  and  brought  him  unto  Jesus, ' ' 
so  personal  influence  continues  to  be  the  me- 
dium of  communication  between  the  will  and 
its  duty.  Prayer,  too,  has  its  preeminent 
place  given  in  this  great  scene  of  the  choice 
of  the  Twelve.  Nowhere  is  its  solemn  im- 
portance and  practical  efficacy  more  impress- 
es 


EFFECTIVE   SERVICE 

ively  set  forth  than  in  Luke's  preface  to  the 
Master's  call  of  the  cabinet  of  his  Kingdom: 
"  He  went  out  into  the  mountain  to  pray; 
and  he  continued  all  night  in  prayer  to  God. 
And  when  it  was  day,  he  called  his  disciples ; 
and  he  chose  from  them  twelve,  whom  also 
he  named  apostles." 

To  the  type  of  this  first  call  to  discipleship 
and  service  modern  experience  conforms.  In 
very  much  the  same  way  in  which  every  other 
decision  of  life  is  or  ought  to  be  reached,  this 
call  to  religious  and  social  work  is  being  and 
must  be  decided.  Out  of  the  providential 
combination  of  circumstances,  through  the 
convergence  of  influences  from  above,  about, 
and  within,  "  by  the  pull  of  numerous 
forces,"  the  divine  call  is  to  be  expected. 
The  whole  trend  of  life  may  generally  be 
seen  to  lead  up  to  it.  In  his  impressive 
treatment  of  the  call  to  the  ministry,  Dr. 
Nathaniel  J.  Burton  thus  impresses  upon  us 
the  comfort  and  significance  of  a  growing 
call  to  minister: 

65 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

"  Calls  may  begin  feeble  (they  often  do),  but 
as  the  years  go  on  and  our  work  goes  on,  the  call 
ought  to  go  on  too,  from  strength  to  strength,  being 
more  and  more  articulate,  affirmative,  and  inspir- 
ing. There  is  a  band  of  music  moving  about  the 
streets  of  the  city  and  it  is  curious  to  notice  in 
what  alternating  swells  and  falls  it  comes  to  you. 
Now  you  hear  it  and  now  you  hear  it  not.  A 
waft  of  wind  has  caught  it.  A  line  of  buildings 
intervenes,  or  possibly  the  musicians  themselves 
have  ceased  from  their  strong  blasts,  and  are  mov- 
ing through  their  gentler  and  half  inaudible  pas- 
sages. So  it  is  with  this  other  and  more  heavenly 
music,  the  music  of  God's  voice  inviting  us  to  be 
co-workers  with  him  in  the  gospel  of  his  son.  That 
great  authentic  voice  comes  to  us  through  this  and 
that  medium,  even  as  the  air  at  large  is  made  to 
deliver  itself  melodiously  through  the  several  in- 
struments of  the  band;  but  for  various  reasons, 
some  innocent  and  some  not,  that  one  dearest  music 
of  our  life,  as  chosen  men  of  God,  finds  its  way 
to  our  ears  inconstantly.  Various  unpardonable 
winds  sweep  in.  Various  infirmities  whereunto  we 
were  born  and  from  which  we  cannot  wholly  escape 
interpose  their  confusion.  Possibly  an  occasional 
66 


EFFECTIVE   SERVICE 

miserable  gust  from  the  outlying  hells  of  the  uni- 
verse points  this  way  to  hinder  our  hearing.  All 
this  is  incidental  to  a  life  on  earth.  But  no  real 
minister  will  consent,  or  will  be  called  upon  to 
consent,  to  a  lifelong  loss  of  a  supernatural  com- 
mission. By  and  by  the  old  music  will  come  back. 
In  some  watch  of  the  night,  in  some  moment  of 
prayer  and  mourning,  in  some  studious  hour,  in 
some  praying  assembly  of  God's  people,  by  some 
bed  where  a  saint  lies  dying,  in  the  uplifted  de- 
livery of  some  sermon,  somewhere  and  before  long, 
he  will  catch  again  that  voice  of  voices,  that  call 
of  his  Heavenly  Father,  and  straightway  his  work 
will  be  transfigured  before  him  again  and  he  will 
bear  the  strength  of  ten." 

The  sense  of  personal  unfitness  for  service, 
which  often  counteracts  the  consciousness  of 
the  divine  call  to  render  it,  suggests  the  study 
of  the  character-training  by  which  prophets, 
apostles,  and  the  "  chosen  people  "  were  fit- 
ted for  their  work.  It  is  selected,  equipped, 
and  trained  personalities  that  are  the  chosen 
means  for  ministry.  The  purpose  and  man- 
67 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

ner  of  this  training  are  both  emphasised  by 
the  fact  that  "  he  calleth  unto  him  whom  he 
himself  would;  and  they  came  unto  him. 
And  he  appointed  twelve  that  they  should  be 
with  him,  and  that  he  might  send  them  forth 
to  preach,  and  to  have  authority  "  (Mark  iii. 
13-15).  To  "be  with  him  "  we  are  called 
first  of  all.  And  being  with  him  is  both  an 
end  in  itself  and  a  means  to  a  further  pur- 
pose. Character  is  religion's  greatest 
achievement  and  the  instrumentality  of  all 
its  accomplishments.  Our  sending  forth  de- 
pends upon  our  being  with  him.  The  forth- 
going  upon  service  is  measured  by  our  in- 
coming to  fellowship  with  God  and  fellow 
men. 

Nowhere  is  the  relation  between  prepara- 
tion and  service  more  impressively  stated 
than  by  Jesus'  own  life.  How  dispropor- 
tionately long  seem  those  thirty  years  of 
silent  preparation  to  the  three  brief  years  of 
his  public  ministry!  Yet  in  what  contrast 
with  any  three  years  of  any  other  life  or 
68 


EFFECTIVE   SERVICE 

with  all  the  years  of  the  longest  and  greatest 
of  lives  stand  those  three  years  of  his  toil! 
The  fact  that  he  was  but  three  years  in  doing 
all  that  he  did  is  not  without  its  connection 
with  the  other  fact  that  he  was  all  of  thirty 
years  in  becoming  what  he  was  and  in  pre- 
paring to  do  what  he  did. 

The  place  in  the  plan  of  Christ 's  life  given 
to  the  training  of  the  Twelve  is  also  most  em- 
phatic testimony  to  the  divine  sense  of  the 
necessity  of  preparation  for  service.  More 
than  by  anything  else  his  life-plan  is  to  be 
discerned  in  the  requirements  of  and  pro- 
vision for  the  training  of  the  disciples.  This 
was  the  purpose  that  lay  nearest  to  his  heart. 
Every  act  and  word,  miracle  and  discourse, 
took  its  bearings  from  and  had  its  bearing 
upon  the  development  of  their  characters. 
The  study  of  our  Lord's  life  as  the  school  for 
the  training  of  his  disciples  reveals  new  plan 
and  purpose  in  his  whole  earthly  career. 

Two  distinct  aims  are  apparent  in  this 
training,  to  the  accomplishment  of  which  two 
69 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

different  periods  of  their  discipleship  and  his 
life  were  devoted.  The  first  effort  of  their 
great  teacher  was  negative — to  liberate  them 
from  the  limitations  of  their  natures  and  sur- 
roundings. Fundamental  qualities  and  ca- 
pacities are  discoverable  in  the  first  six  of 
the  disciples  which  became  the  basis  for  at- 
tainment of  character  that  qualified  them  for 
their  service.  The  brotherliness  of  Andrew 
and  Philip  (John  i.  41,  45),  reappears  in 
larger  mould  in  John  xii.  20-22.  Through 
the  Simon  of  John  i.  42,  Jesus  saw  the  Rock- 
Man,  Peter,  of  Matthew  xvi.  16-19.  John's 
coming  to  Christ,  to  see  and  abide,  stands  for 
that  love  and  loyalty  to  which  all  the  prom- 
ises are  made  (John  i.  39).  Nathaniel's 
guilelessness  is  the  lowermost  layer  of  the 
foundation  of  Christian  character.  (John  i. 
47,  compared  with  Matt.  vi.  22-24.) 

Yet  these  very  fundamental  elements  of 

character  were  fettered  and  bound  down  by 

the  limitations  of  their  own  natures,  the  force 

of  fixed  habits,  the  restrictions  of  false  teach- 

70 


EFFECTIVE    SERVICE 

ing  and  custom,  and  the  iron-earth  and  brass- 
heavens  of  their  hard  age. 

To  the  rescue  of  their  imprisoned  spirits 
and  their  suppressed  hearts  the  great  Lib- 
erator came  proclaiming  release,  the  recov- 
ering of  sight,  the  binding  together  of  their 
fragmentary  lives,  the  opening  of  the  prison, 
and  the  liberty  of  life.  Through  all  the  early 
part  of  their  discipleship  he  did  little  else 
than  ring  in  their  ears  this  proclamation  of 
their  emancipation.  Most  of  his  words  were 
blows  to  strike  off  their  shackles  of  self  and 
sin.  Most  of  their  trials  of  heart  and  faith 
were  the  forges  in  which  habit  and  custom 
were  melted  off.  Most  of  the  wonder-works 
they  saw  him  do  were  done  to  let  the  op- 
pressed go  free  and  to  display  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 

Such,  too,  must  be  the  initial  experience  of 
our  spiritual  apprenticeship.  It  lies  in  the 
deeds  that  must  be  undone,  in  the  thoughts 
that  must  be  unlearned,  in  honest  dissent 
from  hitherto  careless  assent,  in  squaring 
71 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

11  hearsay  "  theories  with  facts,  in  surren- 
dering self  and  the  very  consciousness  of  it. 
But  this  conquest  is  the  price  of  our  liberty 
to  live,  to  labor,  and  to  love.  Dispossession 
is  the  condition  of  being  possessed  with  the 
divine  purpose. 

With  the  opening  of  the  last  year  of  their 
training  a  great  change  is  noticeable  in  the 
form  and  purpose  of  Christ's  teaching  and 
discipline.  In  the  main,  the  manner  of  his 
speech  becomes  more  direct  and  plain,  more 
unreserved  and  confidential.  He  talks  with 
them  no  longer  as  servants  but  as  friends. 
He  turns  from  what  they  should  not  be  and 
what  they  should  not  do  to  tell  them  what 
they  are  to  be  and  do.  Affirmatives  replace 
negatives  in  doctrine  as  well  as  in  morals. 
Gradually  he  teaches  the  hard  and  high 
things  as  they  are  ready  to  bear  them.  Such 
is  the  positive  training  in  character  for  which 
negative  discipline  is  only  and  always  pre- 
paratory. 

Thus,  the  first  disciples  shared  his  pur- 
72 


EFFECTIVE    SERVICE 

pose  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minis- 
ter; they  saw  that  greatness  is  measured  by 
service  and  service  by  sacrifice. 

We  have  already  seen  that  there  is  more 
use  for  the  whole  man  than  for  any  of  his 
parts.  We  are  bidden  by  St.  Paul  not  only 
to  "  present  yourselves  unto  God  as  alive 
from  the  dead  ' '  but  also  ' '  your  members  as 
instruments  of  righteousness  unto  God." 
Our  personality  is  thus  represented  as  a 
whole  armory  of  weapons  for  service.  We 
should  learn  the  serviceableness  of  each — in- 
tellect, conscience,  imagination,  memory,  will, 
and  heart;  and  by  exercise  and  discipline  we 
should  cultivate  their  capacity  and  develop 
their  power. 

"  The  body  is  for  the  Lord;  and  the  Lord 
for  the  body  "  (1  Cor.  vi.  13).  All  its  mem- 
bers, also,  are  instruments  of  righteousness 
unto  God.  The  whole  man  is  sometimes  de- 
scribed as  a  "  voice."  The  eye  is  the  outlet 
and  inlet  of  the  soul.  "  Beautiful  upon  the 
mountains  are  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth 
73 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

good  tidings,  .  .  .  that  publisheth  salva- 
tion." Awful  is  the  desecration  of  the  body 
which  is  "a  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 
Terrible  is  the  destruction  of  that  temple 
when  it  is  defiled.  Nothing  in  the  education 
and  religious  training  of  the  young  is  more 
needed  than  developing  and  informing  "  a 
physical  conscience  "  for  the  protection  and 
spiritual  culture  of  the  body. 

Besides  the  implements  for  service  with 
which  we  are  equipped  by  nature  there  are 
those  which,  in  the  language  of  religion,  are 
called  "  gifts  of  grace."  Repentance,  faith, 
hope,  and  love  generally  stand  connected  in 
Scripture  with  the  words  "  in,"  "by,"  or 
"  through."  This  means  that  they  are  the 
instruments  in,  by,  or  through  which  some- 
thing is  done.  Almost  always  what  is  said 
to  be  done  by  means  of  these  instrumentali- 
ties is  what  is  done  through  them  for  and 
upon  the  individual  who  possesses  them. 
But  there  is  warrant  enough  both  in  Scrip- 
ture and  in  experience  to  study  these  gift- 
74. 


EFFECTIVE   SERVICE 

growths  of  the  religious  life  as  implements 
in,  by,  and  through  which  we  may  work  for 
others. 

Experience  with  our  repented  sins  gives 
us  capacity  to  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of 
others'  infirmities  and  to  share  in  David's 
and  Peter's  power  to  "  turn  the  disobedient 
to  the  wisdom  of  the  just."  Kindled  by 
love,  the  faith  and  hope  by  which  our  own 
souls  are  saved  are  the  means  of  believing 
and  helping  others  into  the  better  life  who 
have  no  faith  nor  hope  in  themselves. 

"  God  sends  us  a  soul-friend  once  in  a  life- 
time," writes  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  "  who 
loves  us  not  for  what  we  are  or  have  been, 
but  for  what  by  God's  great  grace  we  may 
become."  And  she  likens  this  soul-friend  to 
the  mother  of  Augustine,  who  dreamed  that 
she  saw  him  clad  in  the  white  robes  of  a 
Christian  priest,  ministering  at  the  altar, 
when  he  was  a  prodigal  in  the  far  country, 
until  he  became  the  saint  his  mother's 
prayer-dream  hoped  he  would  be.  Lord 
75 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

Byron,  on  the  other  hand,  is  said  to  have 
lamented,  "  Men  thought  me  to  be  so  much 
worse  than  I  was  that  I  became  as  bad  as 
they  thought  me  to  be." 

These  natural  endowments  and  gifts  of  the 
religious  spirit,  which  we  have  been  consid- 
ering as  "  instruments  of  righteousness  unto 
God,"  must  not  be  considered  apart  from 
ourselves.  They  are  the  living  organs  of  our 
new  life.  They  do  not  belong  to  any  part  of 
us.  They  are  the  organs  of  the  whole  man, 
through  which  the  entire  person  acts.  Man 
is  a  unit.  We  live  one  life.  Mind  is  a  man 
thinking.  Will  is  a  man  willing.  Faith  is  a 
man  believing.  Partition  is  the  paralysis  of 
the  parted  member  and  the  crippling  or  death 
of  the  dismembered  body.  "  Soul  "  and 
"spirit"  have  almost  perished  from  our 
consciousness  by  being  regarded,  and  so  con- 
stantly referred  to  as  something  a  man  has. 
Soul  is  the  self,  all  I  am  or  can  become. 
And  the  body  is  also  so  much  a  part  of  what 
we  now  are  that  it  is  difficult  if  not  impos- 
76 


EFFECTIVE    SERVICE 

sible  to  conceive  of  ourselves  as  disembodied. 
Browning  enjoins  us : 

"  Let  us  not  always  say 
'Spite  of  this  flesh  to-day 
I  strove,  made  head,  gained  ground  upon  the 

whole. 

As  the  bird  wings  and  sings, 
Let  us  cry,  *  All  good  things 
Are  ours,  nor  soul  helps  flesh  more  now  than 

flesh  helps  soul.'  " 

The  great  commission  of  Judaism  to  invite 
tbe  world  to  come  into  the  Covenant,  and 
of  Christianity,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world, " 
commits  every  disciple  of  both  faiths  to  ful- 
fil tbis  mission  of  tbe  wbole  congregation 
and  cburcb.  Although  general  enough  to 
include  tbe  work  of  all,  each  one  must  read  in 
it  bis  own  part  in  the  common  cause.  It  pro- 
claims from  tbe  bouse-tops  all  tbat  is  spoken 
in  tbe  ear  and  within  tbe  inner  chamber  of 
eacb  one's  beart.  Whatsoever  bas  been  said 
in  the  darkness  to  eacb  solitary  worker  is  here 
77 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

heard  in  the  light.  Its  great  common  ele- 
ments enter  into  every  one's  summons. 
"All  nations  "  indicates  the  catholicity  in 
our  ideals  and  efforts  which  are  requisite  to 
obedience  and  success,  the  all-comprehensive 
purpose  of  each  one's  mission.  No  one  can 
do  more.  Nothing  less  will  do.  Debtorship 
to  all  prompts  the  best  impulse  and  efficiency 
for  striving  to  serve  each. 

But  to  be  good  is  not  enough.  We  must 
be  better  than  good,  if  we  would  do  good. 
We  must  know  how  to  do  it,  we  must  be  effi- 
cient. "  The  goodness  fallacy  "  is  well  said 
by  William  H.  Allen  to  be  fatal  to  both  re- 
ligious and  social  work.  No  education  should 
be  considered  "  liberal  "  which  does  not  fit 
for  public  service  of  some  kind.  No  public 
school  fulfils  its  function  that  does  not  fit 
for  citizenship.  No  religious  character  or 
culture  should  satisfy  any  church  or  church- 
member  that  does  not  inspire  and  equip  for 
serving  others.  To  schools  of  civics  and 
philanthropy  leading  students  should  be 
78 


EFFECTIVE    SERVICE 

sent  from  colleges  and  seminaries,  Sunday 
schools  and  training  institutes,  for  graduate 
study  and  practice  to  learn  to  do  efficient 
social  work. 

For,  all  the  qualifications  to  meet  the  re- 
quirements of  the  world-field  are  identified 
with  the  duty  and  privilege  of  service  in  that 
imperative  mandate  in  each  one's  great  com- 
mission, "  Go  ye." 


79 


CHAPTER  V 

CHANGING  CONDITIONS  OF  A  WORKING  FAITH 

IT  is  well  to  pause  and  poise  one's  thought 
in  turning  from  the  experience  of  religion  as 
a  personal  possession  toward  the  necessity  to 
apply  it  to  the  relationships  and  conditions 
of  human  life.  For  there  is  danger  of  part- 
ing asunder  what  God  has  put  together,  of 
making  antagonistic  to  each  other  and  mu- 
tually exclusive  the  elements  which  consti- 
tute the  same  life  and  which  are  inextricably 
identified  in  every  human  being. 

If  life  and  religion  are  alike  in  being  made 
up  of  our  relationships  to  God  and  fellow 
men;  if  the  human  factors  involved  in  the 
problem  of  applying  the  divine  ideals  and 
forces  of  religion  to  every  life  must  be  reck- 
oned with;  if  personality  itself  must  be  rec- 
ognised as  a  social  product,  as  well  as  a  social 
80 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

force ;  then  a  religion  of  right-relationship  f o 
fellow  men  and  Father  God  is  the  only  re- 
ligion we  can  live  by  or  work  with.  In  this 
very  way  God  constituted  both  human  life 
and  religion  itself,  according  to  the  Scrip- 
tures. 

If  this  is  true,  then  it  follows  that  the 
emphasis  upon  the  human  elements  inherent 
both  in  life  and  religion  is  no  less  religious, 
spiritual,  and  divine.  For  God  himself  has 
not  only  constituted  human  life  in  that  way, 
but  Christ  himself  declares  "  on  these  two 
commandments  hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets."  The  first  of  course  is  first — 
"  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength."  But 
it  implies  a  second,  and  "  the  second  is  this, 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself." 
On  these  two  together,  not  on  either  one  of 
them  apart,  all  religion  hangs. 

And  yet  there  are  poor  souls,  perhaps  the 
most  of  us,  who  are  trying  to  be  religious  on 
81 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

one  of  these  lines  alone,  trying  to  be  religions 
individually  while  collective!^  we  are  pagan; 
trying  to  live  an  individual  Christian  life, 
while  our  own  and  others'  relationships  in 
business  and  pleasure,  in  society  and  politics, 
ignore  Christian  exactions  and  ideals,  wholly 
or  in  such  large  part  that  our  collective  life 
is  essentially  heathen.  This  awful  dualism 
is  the  ethical  tragedy  of  the  age.  In  the  vain 
attempt  to  live  our  life  on  two  levels  we  lose 
it  on  both.  Our  relationships  to  God  our 
Father  are  not  ' '  saved  ' '  if  the  relations  in 
which  we  are  living  with  his  children,  our  fel- 
low men,  are  ' '  lost. ' '  No  more  is  our  social 
life  sound  if  it  is  lived  only  manward  and  not 
Godward.  Each  of  us  lives  one  life,  not  two. 
There  are  indeed  two  tendencies  in  each  life, 
but  one  of  them  is  the  main  stream  and  the 
other  is  only  the  eddy.  In  the  seventh  chap- 
ter of  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans,  that  great- 
est and  last  analysis  of  an  individual  human 
life,  St.  Paul,  indeed,  shows  us  two  laws 
struggling  for  the  mastery  of  the  one  life, 
82 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

the  "  law  of  sin  "  and,  the  "  law  of  the 
spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus. ' '  But  through- 
out the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  desperate  strug- 
gle, above  and  beneath  the  soul's  cry  of 
despair  and  defeat,  or  of  triumph  and 
victory,  he  shows  the  "  I  myself  "  to  be 
living  one  life  after  all,  dominated  by  either 
one  or  the  other  of  these  two  laws. 

So  Eobert  Louis  Stevenson's  weird  tale  of 
Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde  tells  the  story  of 
only  one  man,  not  two.  In  effect  it  powerfully 
dramatised  this  seventh  chapter  of  Paul's 
Epistle  to  the  Romans.  For  however  much 
there  may  seem  to  be  two  men  in  one,  the 
man  of  the  story  is  really  only  the  one  or  the 
other  of  these  two  characters  at  one  and  the 
same  time.  When  he  is  the  better  Dr.  Jekyll, 
he  is  not  the  worse  Mr.  Hyde.  When  he  is 
the  worse  Mr.  Hyde,  he  is  not  the  better  Dr. 
Jekyll.  One  of  St.  Paul's  "  two  laws  "  dom- 
inates the  other,  as  Stevenson's  hero  is  dom- 
inated by  the  human  spirit  of  a  Jekyll  or  by 
the  fiendish  spirit  of  a  Hyde. 
83 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

When  a  discharged  convict  confided  to  the 
writer  that  he  himself  was  these  two  charac- 
ters, as  he  had  seen  them  acted  on  the  stage 
of  a  theatre,  he  was  asked  whether  he  had 
ever  been  both  of  them  at  once.  "  No,"  he 
confessed,  "  I  have  been  Mr.  Hyde  most  of 
the  time  and  Dr.  Jekyll  some  of  the  time. 
But  as  I  know  that  the  bad  man  Hyde  is  hold- 
ing down  the  good  man  Jekyll  in  me,  I  have 
come  to  you  to  help  turn  me  over."  And 
then  he  wistfully  asked,  as  though  trying  to 
recover  some  lost  charm  from  a  dream, 
11  Isn't  there  something  in  the  Bible,  promis- 
ing rest  to  a  fellow  who  is  tired  of  himself?  " 
Back  to  him  came  the  promise,  "  Come  unto 
me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and 
I  will  give  you  rest.  For  my  yoke  is  easy  and 
my  burden  is  light."  Then  he  murmured,  as 
though  talking  to  himself,  as  he  had  in  the 
solitude  of  prison  life,  "  That's  it.  I  learned 
it  when  a  little  boy  in  Sunday-school  and 
often  tried  to  remember  and  repeat  it  in  my 
cell,  but  I  never  knew  it  meant  me  until  now." 
84 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

To  be  "  saved  "  this  man  had  to  learn  to 
live  one  life,  and  no  longer  try  to  live  two 
lives.  And  his  outer  life  had  to  be  made  one 
with  his  inner  life.  In  order  not  "  to  be 
conformed  to  this  world  "  in  which  he  had 
been  living  the  evil  life,  his  "  world  "  had 
to  be  made  conformable  to  his  new  life,  or 
it  would  have  perished  at  the  birth.  To  be 
i  '  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  his  mind  ' ' 
involved  all  the  help  he  could  get  from 
Father  God  and  brother  men  to  conform  the 
little  world  in  which  he  had  lived  to  the 
new  life  he  was  living.  And  at  the  trans- 
formation, men  wondered  as  they  did  at 
Pentecost. 

Somehow  we  must  realise  in  ourselves  and 
in  all  the  world  more  of  that  unity  of  life 
this  side  of  the  judgment-bar,  if  our  souls 
are  to  stand  the  single  test  of  that  last 
assize,  or  men  are  to  continue  to  believe 
in  religion  as  the  power  to  save  them  in  that 
last  great  day  and  in  every  day  through 
which  they  approach  it.  Many  men,  seem- 
85 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

ingly  furthest  away  from  religion,  and  con- 
sciously to  themselves  anti-religious,  are 
found  to  relate  religion  little  or  not  at  all 
with  their  own  human  lives  and  relationships. 
Almost  to  the  last  man,  a  group  of  radical 
working  men  in  Chicago  insisted  that  religion 
was  something  superimposed  by  an  arbitrary 
divine  authority;  or,  if  they  did  not  recog- 
nise divine  authority  at  all,  that  it  is  some- 
thing superimposed  by  a  small  class  of  people 
upon  the  mass  of  people,  who  are  held  up  to 
reprobation  or  ostracism  if  they  do  not  con- 
form to  the  creeds  and  church  institutions  of 
the  other  class.  When  told  that  every  man 
of  them  had  a  religion  of  his  own,  if  he  did 
not  accept  that  of  Christianity  or  Judaism; 
that  his  religion  consisted  of  his  own  ideals 
of  his  relationship  to  God  and  fellow  men,  if 
he  did  not  accept  Christ's  ideal  of  these  rela- 
tionships, they  cried  out  against  any  such 
reasonable  definition  of  religion  as  unhis- 
torical  and  never  realised.  "  That  has  never 
been  the  religion  which  the  Church  has 
86 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

taught  or  practised  in  all  the  wo  rid, "  was 
their  rejoinder. 

"  However  that  may  be  admitted  or  de- 
nied, nevertheless, "  it  was  claimed,  "  this  is 
the  ideal  of  religion  taught  by  the  Bible  and 
practised  by  its  truest  believers.  Creeds  and 
churches,  sermons  and  services,  rituals  of 
worship  and  rules  of  life  impress  and  express 
religion  more  or  less.  But  religion  itself  is 
relationship.  The  relationship  which  each 
one  of  us  actually  has  to  God  as  Father,  and 
to  fellow  men  as  brothers,  is  all  the  religion 
that  any  one  really  has,  although  the  more  of 
it  that  he  aspires  to  constitutes  no  small  or 
unreal  part  of  his  religious  faith  and  hope." 
This  humanized  definition  of  religion  so  over- 
came their  objection  that  some  of  these  very 
men  offered  to  organize  and  join  a  church, 
1 1  if  it  could  be  called  by  another  name." 

At  Christ's  judgment-bar,  if  not  before, 

we  will  be  confronted  by  the  single  supreme 

test  of  one  life,  one  religion.    There  the  only 

religion  that  stands  the  final  test  is  one  that 

87 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

covers  the  whole  life  and  all  its  relation- 
ships. There  will  be  found  such  "  unity  of 
faith  and  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God  " 
that  there  will  be  no  distinction  between  the 
individual  and  the  social,  the  secular  and  the 
religious,  the  physical  and  the  spiritual,  the 
human  and  the  divine,  in  either  life  or  re- 
ligion. There  it  will  be  no  excuse  to  say 
that  you  did  not  know  it  was  religious  to  feed 
the  hungry,  give  drink  to  the  thirsty,  take 
the  stranger  in,  clothe  the  naked,  visit  the 
sick,  and  come  unto  the  prisoner.  Neverthe- 
less the  Saviour-judge  will  say,  "  Inasmuch 
as  ye  did  it  not  unto  one  of  these  least,  ye 
did  it  not  unto  me."  For  so  identified  is  he 
with  each  one  of  us, 

"  So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 
So  near  is  God  to  man," 

that  the  Son  of  Man  from  his  judgment- 
throne  does  not  recognise  anything  to  be 
divine  that  is  not  human,  does  not  acknowl- 
88 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

edge  anything  as  done  to  him  which  is  denied 
to  his  brother  men,  does  not  welcome  to  his 
presence  those  claiming  relationship  to  him 
who  ignore  or  deny  their  relations  with  the 
least  and  the  lowliest,  with  each  and  all  of 
woman  born.  Indeed, ' '  the  righteous  ' '  seem 
to  be  the  more  welcome  from  the  fact  that 
when  rewarded  for  doing  unto  their  brethren 
what  Christ  would  have  had  them  do  unto 
him,  they  answered  him  saying,  "  Lord, 
when  saw  we  thee  hungry,  and  fed  thee?  or 
athirst,  and  gave  thee  drink?  And  when  saw 
we  thee  a  stranger,  and  took  thee  in?  or 
naked,  and  clothed  thee?  And  when  saw  we 
thee  sick,  or  in  prison,  and  came  unto  thee?  ' 
Just  because  they  did  it  only  for  the  sake  of 
their  brethren  themselves,  the  Christ- judge 
seems  the  better  pleased  to  take  it  as  done 
unto  himself.  God  Almighty  thus  identifies 
himself  with  every  human  being,  and  if  you 
and  I  do  not,  we  are  not  God-like,  we  are  not 
yet  restored  to  the  likeness  of  the  image  of 
our  Father  in  heaven  in  which  he  made  us  to 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

be  man-like.  We  cannot  be  like  him  until 
"  we  see  Mm  as  he  is." 

This  religion  of  relationship  is  surely  if 
slowly  being  attained  and  never  more  genu- 
inely and  rapidly  than  now.  There  is  a  shift 
of  emphasis  in  the  appeal  of  both  evangelism 
and  nurture  which  aligns  religion  far  more 
closely  with  the  social  consciousness  of  the 
age. 

The  "  soul  "  that  is  saved  is  not  now 
said  to  be  any  part  of  a  person,  not  even 
the  highest  and  best  part  of  us,  but  it  is 
nothing  less  than  the  whole  self,  all  we  are 
or  may  become,  the  man,  the  woman,  the 
child.  The  emphasis  which  used  to  be  so 
exclusively  placed  upon  the  future  life  has 
shifted  a  more  proportionate  part  of  its 
weight  to  the  salvation  of  the  present  life. 
Passive  submission  to  the  "  divine  decrees," 
which  used  to  paralyse  effort  and  classify 
the  very  race  into  the  "  elect  "  and  the  "  rep- 
robate," has  been  happily  supplemented, 
if  not  superseded,  by  practical  endeavour 
90 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

to  change  those  human  conditions  which  are 
antecedent  to  and  surround  every  human  life 
and  which  make  so  mightily  to  shape  its 
destiny.  The  whole  life  of*  the  individual 
and  the  race,  to  be  saved  and  built  up  in  the 
fulness  of  Christ,  is  the  Holy  Grail  for  which 
modern  Christianity  is  in'  quest.  To  what 
salvation  saves  has  fairer  emphasis,  even  if 
it  be  somewhat  at  the  expense  of  the  empha- 
sis which  should  be  laid  upon  what  it  delivers 
us  from.  Sin  is  less  considered  abstractly, 
apart  from  the  person  sinning,  and  is  more 
closely  brought  to  bear  upon  turning  the  self 
from  sin.  Eighteousness'is  more  than  "  im- 
puted "  and  stops  not  sh'&rt  of  righting  the 

relations  of  each  one  of  us  to  God  and  one's 

it 
fellows.     The  humanity*  Christ  has  come 

to  be  one  of  the  most  cMvincing  proofs  of 
his  divinity.  For  as  w«ee  him  to  be  so 
much  more  of  a  man  thH  any  of  us  ever 
has  been,  we  are  led  to  think  him  to  be  more 
than  man.  This  shift  in  the  weight  of  Chris- 
tian emphasis  is  surely  taking  place.  But 
91 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

the  emphasis  as  surely  weighs  as  much  as 
ever,  and  perhaps  even  more  to  the  modern 
mind. 

The  old  "  burden  of  souls  "  is  on  the  heart 
and  conscience  as  much,  if  not  more,  than 
ever.  But  we  have  our  own  ways  of  bearing 
it  in  this  day  and  generation.  Our  present 
recognition  and  assumption  of  this  old  bur- 
den are  coming  to  be  more  diversified,  spon- 
taneous, scattered,  and  perhaps  more  real  for 
being  less  conventional  and  less  exclusively 
ecclesiastical  in  their  expression.  It  may 
seem,  therefore,  that  breadth  in  evangelism 
makes  it  less  intense,  concentrated,  impress- 
ive, and  therefore  yields  fewer  tangible  re- 
sults. Yet  more  people  really  care  more 
for  their  fellow  men  than  ever  before,  and 
show  it  in  a  greater  variety  of  practical 
ways. 

Of  William  T.  Stead,  London's  distin- 
guished public-spirited  citizen,  who  was 
neither  a  minister  nor  an  evangelist,  one  of 
England's  greatest  and  most  evangelistic  pre- 
92 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

lates  said,  "  He  really  cares  more  for  his 
fellow  men  than  any  one  I  have  ever  known. ' ' 
In  so  saying  Cardinal  Manning  not  only  gave 
noteworthy  and  deserved  attestation  to  one 
of  the  foremost  Protestant  laymen  of  the 
world,  but  he  emphasized  the  modern  ex- 
pression of  the  burden  for  souls. 

This  greatly  increased  care  for  one  an- 
other is  evidence  of  a  growing  religious  con- 
sciousness. Being  a  Christian  is  to  become 
more  conscious  of  God  and  fellow  man,  and 
less  self-conscious.  That  is  Christ's  way  of 
begetting  in  each  one  of  us  the  consciousness 
of  our  better,  broader,  higher,  diviner  self- 
hood. It  is  the  way  in  which  he  hands  back 
to  the  one  who  gives  himself  away  in  the 
service  of  God  and  his  fellow  men  a  self  bet- 
ter worth  the  saving,  because  it  is  more  to 
God  and  others,  and  does  more  for  the  world 
and  the  Kingdom.  Eeligion  manifests  its 
hold  and  growth  upon  the  present  people  by 
making  us  more  fully  conscious  of  each  oth- 
er's existence.  We  are  more  than  "  souls  ' 
93 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

to  each  other,  we  are  selves.  We  care  for 
each  other,  not  as  "  a  case,"  but  as  a  man, 
a  woman,  a  child;  as  families,  partners, 
schoolmates  and  shopmates,  neighbors  and 
fellow  citizens.  The  burden  of  the  soul  has 
become  the  burden  for  the  whole  self,  in  all 
its  relationships.  To  be  consistent  in  claim- 
ing to  love  souls  and  to  try  to  save  them, 
more  and  more  of  us  profoundly  feel  it  to  be 
incumbent  upon  us  to  care  for  the  life  and 
limb,  the  livelihood  and  standard  of  living, 
the  health,  and  well-being,  the  growth  and 
the  happiness  of  our  fellows. 

This  shift  in  emphasis  is  indicative  both 
of  a  stern  necessity  and  of  the  persistence 
of  religious  life  in  adjusting  itself  to  changed 
conditions.  To  manifest  and  transmit  the 
life  of  God  through  the  lives  of  men  is  the 
problem  of  religion  in  this  and  every  age. 
tests  the  faith  by  its  capacity  to  adjust 
its  vital  spirit  to  the  evolving  form  of  life, 
its  permanent  principles  to  the  changing 
modes  of  living,  its  eternal  life  to  mortal 
94 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

^ 
lives.    Adjustment  to  changing  conditions  is 

a  necessity  to  which  life  must  conform,  or 
cease  to  exist.  This  is  the  inexorable  law 
of  all  life,  to  which  the  spiritual  life  is  no 
exception.  No  soul,  no  church  is  exempt 
from  it.  Physically,  intellectually,  socially, 
spiritually  we  must  change  or  die. 

This  stern  necessity  to  readjust  faith  to  the 
changing  conditions  of  life  is  the  tragedy  of 
personal  experience  as  it  is  the  test  of  reli- 
gions and  churches.  It  is  also  the  attestation 
of  the  religious  faith  and  life  that  they  can 
stand  the  test.  Trying  as  the  transitions 
are  and  sympathetic  as  we  should  be  with 
those  who  are  suffering  their  way  through 
them,  there  is  really  more  in  them  to  reas- 
sure than  to  disturb  us.  Would  we  not  have 
valid  ground  for  deep  doubt  as  to  whether 
our  religious  faith,  life,  and  institutions  were 
God-made  if  they  only,  of  all  things  which 
God  made,  did  not  and  could  not  change? 
Should  not  the  shifting  scenes  and  trying 
transitions  through  which  not  only  we,  but 
95 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

all  others  who  have  preceded  us,  have  been 
obliged  to  pass  be  to  us  what  those  of  our 
Master's  days  on  earth  were  to  him — only 
the  unfolding  of  the  Father's  purpose,  the 
signal  to  take  the  next  step  forward  in  the 
progress  of  his  great  plan  for  our  life  and 
work,  the  call  to  change  our  method  of  proce- 
dure in  employing  the  differing  means  now 
necessary  to  achieve  the  same  unchanging 
ends? 

Through  no  greater  test  and  transition  has 
the  life  of  God  in  the  souls  of  men  passed 
than  in  the  adjustment  it  is  now  making  to 
the  human  lives  now  living  and  working,  un- 
der the  most  rapid  and  radical  changes  ever 
experienced  in  the  history  of  the  race.  Who 
that  is  at  work  can  fail  to  recognise  these 
changes'?  They  are  altering  the  face  of  the 
very  earth,  are  requiring  us  to  use  radically 
different  methods  of  maintaining  our  own 
existence,  are  irresistibly  relating  us  to  each 
other  so  that  we  can  less  and  less  live  apart, 
and  are  shifting  our  innermost  points  of  view 
96 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

from  which  we  look  out  upon  the  world  and 
up  to  God. 

Thus  in  the  inner  life  of  our  thought  and 
feeling  the  natural  and  supernatural  are  be- 
ing brought  nearer  together  than  ever  be- 
fore, though  rendered  no  less  distinct,  by  the 
approach  of  modern  science  and  the  philoso- 
phy and  experience  of  religion  toward  each 
other.  The  material  and  the  spiritual,  and 
our  own  body  and  soul,  are  more  identified  in 
the  unity  of  our  thought  by  the  insight  into 
our  selves  which  modern  psychology  gives  us. 
The  individual  and  the  race  are  coming  to  be 
more  inseparable  in  our  consciousness  of  both 
sin  and  salvation.  God's  world  and  the 
kingdom  of  the  Father  are  beginning  to  in- 
tersphere  in  our  thought  and  work,  as  they 
do  in  the  Word  itself;  and  the  Church  can 
less  and  less  hold  aloof  from  either.  More 
and  more  the  letter  killeth,  more  and  more 
it  is  only  the  spirit  that  maketh  alive. 

In  our  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures, 
through  our  better  knowledge  of  antiquity, 
97 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

the  Bible  is  becoming  more  human,  but  all  the 
more  divine  for  that.  Evidences  of  the 
divinity  of  Christ  grow  with  increasing  rec- 
ognition of  his  humanity.  The  reality  of  the 
Christian  experience  promises  to  be  more 
pronounced  as  we  gain  more  accurate  psy- 
chological knowledge  of  the  ways  of  God's 
Spirit  in  a  human  soul.  Child  study  and  the 
psychology  of  the  child-mind,  by  teaching  us 
how  "  this  little  child  receives, "  is  enabling 
us  to  manifest  the  divine  life  at  each  period 
of  the  child's  growth,  so  that  the  growing 
boy  and  girl  can  really  see  and  handle  the 
Word  of  life.  Scientific  insight  into  the 
choices  of  the  human  will  emphasises  more 
strongly  than  ever  the  essential  reasonable- 
ness and  necessity  of  the  legitimate  evangel- 
istic appeal,  while  at  the  same  time  helping 
us  to  discriminate  between  what  is  sensuous 
and  spiritual,  temporary  and  permanent,  su- 
perficial and  real,  meretricious  and  valuable, 
in  evangelistic  method  and  result. 
In  the  outer  world  the  transition  from  an 
98 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

agricultural  to  a  commercial  age ;  from  rural 
to  urban  conditions  of  life ;  from  working  for 
a  living  alone  or  with  a  few,  to  working  to- 
gether with  large  groups  in  complicated  proc- 
esses of  production ;  from  sharing  a  national 
life  with  people  of  our  own  language  and  race 
to  living  and  working  in  great  international 
and  cosmopolitan  populations — this  transi- 
tion is  the  greatest  change  through  which  the 
institutions  of  civilization  and  religion  have 
ever  passed. 

But  here  again  in  these  mighty  changes 
we  should  see  only  the  Master's  marching 
orders  to  his  people,  the  mandate  of  the  liv- 
ing Lord  which  his  living  Church  need  not 
fear  to  obey.  They  are  his  commands  only 
to  apply  the  Gospel's  age-long,  time-tested, 
saving  truths  so  much  further  as  to  bring  the 
whole  of  a  human  life  under  their  sway  and 
the  whole  world  into  the  Kingdom. 

The  individual  "  must  be  born  again,"  so 
it  must  be  the  function  of  the  Church  to  give 
every  human  life  a  better  chance  to  be  born 
99 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

right  the  first  time,  by  improving  the  heredi- 
tary and  environing  conditions  of  birth  and 
life.  Kegeneration  is  as  necessary  for  the 
community  as  for  the  soul,  if  either  or  both 
are  to  be  fully  saved^/  More  and  more  men 
need  to  be  convicted  of  and  turned  away  from 
their  social,  industrial,  and  political  sins,  in 
order  to  be  made  conscious  of  and  penitent 
for  their  personal  sins.  The  "  cross  "  loses 
most  of  its  demand  and  meaning  in  modern 
life,  unless,  in  addition  to  the  individual  self- 
sacrifice  and  vicarious  suffering  for  others 
for  which  it  now  stands,  it  also  comes  to  be 
a  cross  of  industrial,  political,  social,  civic, 
and  economic  self-denial.  The  intercession 
and  mediation  of  Christ  fail  to  be  fully  ap- 
plied unless  his  followers  intercede  between 
brethren  at  strife  and  mediate  peace  in  the 
fratricidal  wars  which  shame  the  industrial 
and  national  life  of  Christendom. 

This  social  emphasis  in  religious  feeling 
and  work  is  not  new.    It  is  as  old  as  the 
second  table  of  the  law  from  Sinai,  "  Thou 
100 


CHANGING 

shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself. "  It  is 
as  Christian  as  the  law  of  neighbour  love  and 
that  rudiment  of  all  Christian  ethics,  Christ's 
Golden  Eule.  It  is  not  a  substitute  for,  or 
anything  that  is  preferred  to,  the  emphasis 
upon  the  individual  life.  You  are  not  shut 
up  to  choose  whether  to  work  for  the  indi- 
vidual or  for  the  improvement  of  social  con- 
ditions. "  Work  for  the  soul  to  make  a  man 
good!  "  Surely.  "  And  that  good  man 
makes  his  surroundings  better?  "  That  is 
true,  but  it  is  only  the  half  truth.  For  bet- 
ter surroundings  help  to  make  men  good. 
That  is  the  other  half  of  the  whole  truth. 
You  cannot  work  for  one  without  working  for 
the  other.  The  surest  way  to  accomplish 
either  one  is  to  work  at  the  same  time  for  the 
other.  We  have  kept  these  essential  parts 
of  the  same  work  too  far  and  too  long  apart. 
Both  ends  of  this  same  line  should  be  worked 
together  and  at  once.  That  is  the  only  way 
to  save  the  soul  and  to  save  the  world  too. 
For  the  world  is  only  the  relationship  of  all 
101 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

souls.  But  it  takes  more  and  more  of  a  saved 
world  to  save  a  single  soul. 

The  social,  emphasis,  therefore,  is  per- 
sonal. Individual  emphasis,  therefore,  is 
social.  Taken  together  their  emphasis  in  re- 
ligion is  no  less  reformatory  for  being  all  the 
more  formative.  It  is  good  to  criticise,  but 
better  to  construct;  good  to  destroy  things 
evil,  but  better  to  build  and  plant  good  things ; 
good  to  know  what  not  to  do  and  be,  but  bet- 
ter to  know  what  to  be  and  do;  good  to  be 
negative,  but  better  to  be  positive;  good  to 
deny,  but  better  to  affirm;  good  to  re- 
form, but  better  to  form.  "One  formatory 
is  better  than  ten  thousand  reformatories," 
said  Horace  Mann,  the  greatest  of  our  pioneer 
American  educators. 

It  is,  moreover,  an  impressive  fact,  worthy 
of  the  most  reverent  consideration,  that  both 
Judaism  and  Christianity  now,  as  in  every 
other  age,  have  put  the  social  emphasis  of 
the  religion  into  life  and  work,  before  and 
always  more  than  into  literature  and  theory. 


CHANGING   CONDITIONS 

Indeed,  the  social  theory  and  literature  of 
both  Synagogue  and  Church  have  always 
come  out  of  their  life.  No  social  institutions 
and  life  have  survived  which  were  the  prod- 
uct of  any  mere  theory.  However  uncon- 
sciously to  herself,  or  however  unrecognised 
by  men,  the  Church  has  always  builded  bet- 
ter than  they  or  she  knew.  Her  family  struc- 
ture is  the  most  indestructible  and  indispens- 
able unit  of  society.  Her  Christian  Associa- 
tions for  young  men  and  young  women  are 
forming  the  conditions  and  relations  which 
form  their  characters  and  shape  their  des- 
tiny. Her  educational  philanthropies  are 
raising  the  abject  and  subject  classes.  Her 
local  households  of  faith  have  been,  and  may 
be  again,  natural  and  necessary  centres  of 
the  community,  co-ordinating  and  bringing 
into  harmony  and  co-operation  all  the  forces 
of  neighbourhood  and  national  life  that  make 
for  righteousness  and  fraternity.  Her  mis- 
sionary agencies,  at  home  and  abroad,  are 
founding  new  civilisations.  Slowly  but 
103 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

surely,  the  social  moulds  for  a  new  manhood 
are  being  forged  and  fashioned,  and  the 
structure  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth 
is  evolving.  The  "  kingdom  of  the  Father  " 
is  the  only  centre  and  circumference  of  a 
unity  that  comprehends  the  material,  social, 
and  spiritual  interests  of  mankind.  The  gos- 
pel of  the  Kingdom  is  sociology  with  God  left 
« 

in  it,  with  the  Messianic  spirit  as  the  bond  of 
unity,  with  the  new  birth  of  the  individual 
for  the  regeneration  of  society,  and  the  dy- 
namic spirit  of  religion  as  the  only  power 
adequate  to  fulfil  its  social  ideals.  Sociology 
may  yet  be  claimed  as  having  derived  its 
birthright  from  Judaism  and  Christianity 
and  as  the  science  of  "  the  kingdom  "  which 
fulfils  the  covenants  of  promise  in  both 
Testaments. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  RELIGION  OF  HUMAN  RELATIONSHIPS 

IT  is  not  more  human  to  err  than  to  be  re- 
ligious. Man  has  been  described  as  "  an  in- 
corrigibly religious  animal."  Eeligion  of 
some  sort  is  as  natural  to  human  beings  as 
real  religion  is  supernatural  in  its  origin 
and  results.  Its  rootage  is  as  deep  in  the 
social  relationships,  which  associate  men, 
women,  and  children  together,  as  it  is 
in  the  individual  instincts  of  each  of 
them. 

The  very  terms  which  both  Old  Testament 
and  New  Testament  use  to  describe  our  rela- 
tions to  God  are  just  those  which  describe 
our  relations  to  each  other.  They  are  the 
terms  of  the  known  quantities  which  inter- 
pret to  us  the  unknown  quantities  of  our 
spiritual  relations.  Upon  the  terms  of  our 
105 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

family  relationships  we  are  dependent  for 
our  knowledge  of  what  God  is  like,  of  what  he 
is  to  us  and  we  are  to  him  and  to  each  other. 
"  Like  as  a  father," — "  as  one  whom  his 
mother  comf orteth, ' '  so  is  God.  We  are 
"  children  " —  "  brethren  " —  "  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  Lord  Almighty  " — "  of  the 
household  of  faith."  Love,  obedience,  sacri- 
fice are  the  home  terms  which  reveal  our  fun- 
damental religious  duties.  "  My  Father's 
house  "  is  the  one  disclosure  of  the  unknown 
future,  which  enables  us  to  feel  "  at  home  " 
there.  If  the  family  terms  were  taken 
out  of  our  Bible,  its  revelations  of  our 
spiritual  relationships  would  cease  to  re- 
veal. 

So  the  activities  of  the  "  faith  which 
works  "  are  described  in  terms  of  our  work- 
aday life,  and  of  our  industrial  relations. 
We  are  God's  "  husbandmen  "— "  build- 
ers "— "  fishers  "— "  shepherds  "— "  yoke- 
fellows " — "  fellow  labourers  " — "  workers 
together  with  God."  By  such  political  terms 
106 


HUMAN   RELATIONSHIPS 

of  civic  relationship  as  "  commonwealth  " — 
"  fellow  citizens  r  — "  kingdom  of  priests  " 
-"  holy  nation  "— "  city  of  God  "— "  coun- 
try of  our  own,"  we  learn  to  live  that  corpo- 
rate life,  to  share  that  community  of  inter- 
ests, to  realise  that  ideal  social  order  in  which 
religion  unites  all  who  seek  "  the  city  which 
hath  foundations,  whose  builder  and  maker 
is  God." 

If  these  terms  are  figures  of  speech,  they 
as  surely  mean  the  earthly  types  of  the 
heavenly  realities.  Without  these  visible 
signs,  the  unseen  things  signified  would  be 
unknown.  But  their  significance  rises  no 
higher  into  the  divine  than  their  rootage  runs 
deep  into  the  human.  For  the  whole  Old 
Testament  and  ancient  world  both  show  us 
how  surely  the  consciousness  of  self  and  of 
God  roots  in  our  consciousness  of  each  other. 
Throughout  those  ancient  times  men  were 
more  conscious  of  belonging  to  the  group — 
the  family,  the  tribe,  the  nation — than  of  be- 
longing to  themselves.  Their  morality  and 
107 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

religion,  their  rewards  and  punishments, 
their  life  and  destiny  were  family,  tribal,  and 
national  characteristics,  which  were  shared 
by  these  groups,  and  were  rarely  claimed  for 
individuals  apart  from  the  group.  Indeed, 
consciousness  of  the  group  life  was  so  much 
stronger  than  the  consciousness  of  self,  as 
separable  from  the  group,  that  the  family, 
tribe,  or  nation  was  the  individual  unit,  of 
which  persons  were  but  fractions.  The 
household,  the  kinship,  the  people  were  the 
wholes,  of  which  individuals  were  only  parts. 
Therefore  the  prophets  and  the  lawgivers 
addressed  the  people  as  a  whole ;  punished  or 
rewarded  families  and  tribes,  without  regard 
to  distinctions  between  their  members ;  sum- 
moned the  whole  nation  to  repentance;  and 
addressed  all  the  really  religious  Israelites 
as  * '  servant  of  Jehovah — the  sacrificing,  suf- 
fering, world-saving  and  -serving  Messianic 
r>eople."  The  personal  Messiah  is  repre- 
sented as  the  culmination  of  this  national 
Messianic  history,  and  as  the  initiator  of  a 
108 


HUMAN   RELATIONSHIPS 

still  higher  social  order  called  the  "  kingdom 
of  God,"  and  the  equivalent  of  the  " Golden 
Age." 

Thus  it  was  entirely  natural  for  Jesus  to 
come  "  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  king- 
dom." It  was  inevitable  that  he  should 
group  his  followers  into  a  fellowship  of  "  the 
twelve,"  "the  seventy,"  "the  disciples." 
It  was  as  historic  as  it  was  prophetic  for  him 
to  expect  the  "  kingdom  of  the  Father  "  to 
grow  up  out  of  this  fellowship.  And  it  was 
practical  for  his  disciples  to  gather  them- 
selves within  the  "  communion  "  of  local 
churches  and  organize  their  effort  to  bring 
that  "  kingdom  "  into  the  world  and  trans- 
form the  world  into  the  "  kingdom." 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  Jewish 
version  of  human  history,  God  is  represented 
as  making  the  world  good  and  declaring  it  to 
be  so.  And  to  the  very  end,  "  the  kingdoms 
of  this  world  "  are  promised  to  become  the 
"  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ." 
What  then  is  "  the  earth  "  and  "  the  world  " 
109 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

which  are  said  in  the  Old  Testament  to  be 
"  the  Lord's"?  What  is  "  the  world  "  of 
which  Abraham  is  said  to  be  "  the  heir," 
which  God  "  so  loved,"  which  Jesus  "  came 
not  to  condemn,  but  to  save,"  and  for  which 
he  prayed  unto  the  very  last  not  that  his 
disciples  should  be  taken  out  of  the  world 
but  "  that  the  world  might  believe  "!  What 
is  it  but  the  natural  associations  of  human 
lives,  the  primary  relationships  in  which 
men,  women  and  children  were  meant  and 
made  by  God  "  to  live  and  move  and  have 
their  being  "!  What  is  it  but  the  "  cos- 
mos," the  order  of  life,  or  the  life-spheres 
in  which  human  beings  naturally  and  inevita- 
bly relate  themselves  to  each  other?  The 
"  world,"  therefore,  which  "  the  kingdom  " 
is  to  win  and  sway  is  nothing  more  or  less 
than  those  primary,  elemental,  essential  rela- 
tionships which  we  call  the  family,  the  neigh- 
bourhood, industrial  associations,  fellow  citi- 
zenship, and  religious  affiliations.  These 
constitute  "  the  world,"  over  which  man  is 
110 


HUMAN   RELATIONSHIPS 

bidden  to  "  have  dominion,"  the  evil  part  of 
which  is  judicially  decreed  to  be  overcome 
and  to  pass  away  and  the  redemption  of  which 
is  declared  to  be  the  purpose  and  triumph  of 
both  Judaism  and  Christianity. 

How  fatally  fictitious  the  hard-and-fast 
and  mutually  exclusive  distinction  between 
"  the  church  "  and  "  the  world  "  really  is, 
and  how  untenable  it  is  coming  to  be,  let  this 
vigorous  protest  from  the  editor  of  the  Hib- 
bert  Journal  attest : 

"  The  statement  that  the  race  at  large  is  '  lost ' 
or  ruined  escapes  criticism  only  so  long  as  it  is 
kept  within  the  realm  of  vague  generalities;  but 
let  the  attempt  be  made  to  find  the  seat  of  this 
moral  bankruptcy,  or  to  rail  off  the  solvent  rem- 
nants from  the  rest  of  the  race,  and  the  charge 
will  either  evaporate  or  be  maintained  by  its 
supporters  at  the  cost  of  their  reputation  for  justice 
and  good  sense.  ...  No  doubt  there  are  multi- 
tudes of  lost  souls  everywhere,  but  that  is  very 
different  from  saying  that  the  race  is  ruined.  If 
the  race  were  ruined,  no  section  of  the  race  would 
111 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

be  aware  of  the  fact.  In  the  words  of  Principal 
Caird,  '  The  proposition  would  be  unintelligible 
unless  it  were  false.' 

11  If  by  '  the  world  '  we  mean  such  things  as 
parliamentary  or  municipal  government,  the  great 
industries  of  the  nation,  the  professions  of  medi- 
cine, law,  and  arms,  the  fine  arts,  the  courts  of 
justice,  the  hospitals,  the  enterprises  of  education, 
the  pursuit  of  physical  science  and  its  application 
to  the  arts  of  life,  the  domestic  economy  of  millions 
of  homes,  the  daily  work  of  all  the  toilers — if,  in 
short,  we  include  that  huge  complex  of  secular 
activities  which  keeps  the  world  up  from  hour  to 
hour,  and  society  as  a  going  concern — then  the 
churches  which  stand  apart  and  describe  all  this 
as  morally  bankrupt  are  simply  advertising  them- 
selves as  the  occupiers  of  a  position  as  mischievous 
as  it  is  false. 

"  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  exclude  these  things 
from  our  definition,  what,  in  reason,  do  we  mean 
by  '  the  world  '  ?  Or  shall  we  so  frame  the  defini- 
tion as  to  ensure  beforehand  that  all  the  bad  ele- 
ments belong  to  the  world,  and  all  the  good  to 
the  church?  Or,  again,  shall  we  take  refuge  in 
the  customary  remark  that  whatever  is  best  in 
112 


HUMAN   RELATIONSHIPS 

these  secular  activities  is  the  product  of  Christian 
influence  and  teaching  in  the  past?  This  course, 
attractive  though  it  seems,  is  the  most  fatal  of  all. 
For  if  the  world  has  already  absorbed  so  much  of 
the  best  the  churches  have  to  offer,  how  can  these 
persist  in  declaring  that  the  former  is  morally 
bankrupt?  .  .  . 

!<  Extremists  have  not  yet  perceived  how  dis- 
astrously this  dualistic  theory  thus  recoils  upon 
the  cause  they  would  defend.  The  alienation  from 
church  life  of  so  much  that  is  good  in  modern 
culture,  and  so  much  that  is  earnest  in  every  class, 
is  the  natural  sequel  to  the  traditional  attitude 
of  the  church  to  the  world.  The  church  in  her 
theory  has  stood  aloof  from  the  world.  And  now 
the  world  takes  deadly  revenge  by  maintaining  the 
position  assigned  her  and  standing  aloof  from  the 
church. 

"  The  false  dualism  will  never  be  ended  by  the 
defeat  of  either  member  at  the  hand  of  the  other. 
The  true  solution  of  this,  as  of  every  other  problem 
of  history,  does  not  arrive  until  the  opposing  ele- 
ments become  merged  in  a  higher  unity  and  the 
claims  of  the  parts  are  finally  overriden  by  the 
claims  of  the  whole. " 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

It  is  into  these  world-spheres,  therefore, 
that  Jesus  sends  his  disciples,  as  he  himself 
was  sent.  His  imperative  mandate  is  "  Go 
ye  into  all  the  world."  And  into  it,  further 
and  further,  not  out  of  it,  must  we  go,  if  we 
obey  and  follow  him,  if  we  share  the  fellow- 
ship of  his  suffering  and  of  his  glory.  To 
do  so  intelligently,  individually  or  collect- 
ively, we  must  know  just  what  these  life- 
spheres  are  which  constitute  "  the  world  ' 
into  which  we  are  to  bring  "  the  kingdom," 
in  order  that  the  kingdom  may  possess  the 
world  and  make  it  a  part  of  itself.  We  must 
know  what  these  primary  human  relation- 
ships mean,  what  they  are  for,  what  each  of 
them  is  expected  to  do  that  nothing  else  can 
do  so  well,  if  at  all,  what  institutions  and 
agencies  express  and  fulfil  the  functions  of 
each  of  these  essential  human  partnerships 
which  constitute  every  local  community  and 
society  at  large. 

There  is  no  better  way  to  study  and  fulfil 
our  social  obligations  and  opportunities  than 
114. 


HUMAN   RELATIONSHIPS 

to  get  a  clear  idea  of  the  function  and  sphere 
of  the  family  relationship,  of  neighbourship, 
of  industrial  conditions  and  relations,  of  the 
humanitarian  responsibility  and  service  in- 
cumbent upon  any  group  of  people  constitut- 
ing a  township,  a  village,  a  county,  a  city,  a 
state,  a  nation.  To  find  out  just  what  is  to 
be  done  and  just  how  to  do  it  in  each  one 
of  these  spheres  of  life  and  work,  there  is  no 
better  way  than  to  group  the  actual  or  possi- 
ble agencies  available  to  help  each  one  of  us, 
or  every  group  of  us,  to  fulfil  our  parts  in 
and  through  the  home,  as  parents  and  chil- 
dren, as  husbands  and  wives,  as  brothers  and 
sisters ;  in  and  through  the  neighbourhood,  as 
neighbours  to  those  neighbouring  us ;  in  and 
through  our  business  partnerships  and  our 
industrial  fellowships,  as  those  who  are  part- 
ners with  our  Father  God  and  are  parts  of 
his  very  Providence  whereby  he  feeds  and 
clothes,  shelters  and  nourishes  all  his  chil- 
dren, and  "  opens  his  hand  to  supply  the 
wants  of  every  living  thing  ";  in  and  through 
115 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

the  town  and  city,  as  citizens  charged  with 
the  tremendous  responsibilities  of  building 
and  maintaining  the  frame-work  within  which 
every  one  in  each  community  is  born,  grows 
up,  lives  and  works,  meets  death  and  des- 
tiny ;  in  and  through  the  Church,  as  members 
of  Christ  and  each  other,  commissioned  to 
reveal  and  apply  the  ideals  of  religion  to 
ourselves  and  to  all  others  in  every  one  of 
these  life-spheres  in  which  we  live,  or  which 
is  within  the  reach  of  our  individual  and  col- 
lective influence  throughout  all  the  world. 

What  then  is  the  function  of  the  family  re- 
lationship as  expressed  and  fulfilled  through 
the  institution  of  marriage  and  the  hpme? 
Is  it  not  the  propagation  of  the  race,  the  nur- 
ture of  child  life,  the  culture  of  the  whole 
life,  the  rest  and  recuperation,  character- 
building  and  satisfaction,  of  every  human 
being?  Is  it  not  to  set  the  type  and  inspire 
the  spirit  which  should  characterise  and  dom- 
inate human  beings  in  all  their  other  rela- 
tionships, neighbourly,  industrial,  civic,  and 
116 


HUMAN   RELATIONSHIPS 

ecclesiastical?  If  this  idea  of  what  a  family 
is  for  is  borne  in  upon  us,  will  it  not  impel 
us  to  seek  and  create  every  agency  that  will 
help  us  and  others  to  make  the  most  of  and 
do  the  best  by  our  own  homes  and  others'? 
Will  not  our  effort  thus  to  group  around  the 
family  those  agencies  which  are  most 
tributary  to  it,  or  to  which  it  may  be  most 
tributary,  help  us  the  better  to  define,  or- 
ganise, relate,  and  utilise  these  agencies? 

If  we  realised  that  most  of  us  depend  upon 
neighbourship  for  our  human  fellowships,  our 
recreations,  philanthropy,  and  social  prog- 
ress, would  it  not  mean  more  to  us  to  be 
neighbours  and  to  have  neighbours,  and  to 
rescue  and  restore,  fulfil  and  enjoy  those 
neighbourly  relationships  which  are  well-nigh 
lost  in  the  readjustments  and  transitions  of 
modern  life? 

If  "  business  "  and  the  "  office  force  "  and 

the  ' l  shop 's  crew, ' '  the  labour  union  and  the 

employers'   association   should  come  to  be 

recognised  as  the  means  and  agencies  through 

117 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

which  the  very  Providence  of  God  is  provid- 
ing for  the  preservation,  sustenance,  the  ma- 
terial comfort,  convenience,  equipment,  and 
progress  of  life,  will  it  not  most  surely  and 
swiftly  free  each  one  of  us,  and  also  the 
world,  of  that  sordidness  and  selfishness, 
that  fratricidal  strife  and  workaday  atheism 
which  lay  the  heaviest  curse  upon  the  human 
race!  Is  there  any  other  way  of  turning 
business  into  brotherhood  and  human  broth- 
erhood into  business?  Is  there  a  steadier, 
more  equitable,  more  effective  way  of  making 
' '  life  more  than  meat  and  the  body  than  rai- 
ment, "  of  making  the  physical  and  material 
serve  the  spiritual  and  not  dominate  and  de- 
stroy it,  of  making  the  way  of  earning  a  liv- 
ing also  "  the  way  of  life  "  and  not  the  way 
to  moral  destruction  and  spiritual  death? 

If  politics  were  invested  with  no  less  a 
function  than  the  protection  of  life  and  prop- 
erty, the  repression  of  vice  and  crime,  the 
promotion  of  virtue,  the  realisation  of  the 
highest  ideals  of  each  individual  life  and  of 
118 


HUMAN    RELATIONSHIPS 

every  family  and  of  each  community  and  of 
the  whole  social  order,  would  we  talk  of 
"  dirty  politics  "?  Would  we  not  consider 
citizenship  as  serious  as  religion  and  a  part 
of  it,  would  not  a  city  and  town  be  like  a 
sanctuary,  and  a  ward  and  a  precinct  be  a 
holy  place,  and  the  voting-booth  and  ballot- 
box  a  holy  of  holies'? 

If  all  life  were  invested  with  such  sanctity 
and  every  sphere  of  it  were  sacred,  religion 
would  be  no  less  reverenced  and  its  sanctu- 
aries would  be  all  the  more  places  of  privi- 
lege and  power.  For  then  the  supreme 
function  of  religion  would  be  recognised  as 
essential  to  all  life.  And  the  unique  and  pre- 
eminent prerogatives  of  the  Church  would 
identify  it  with  all  that  is  both  divine  and 
human.  For  to  the  Church  the  world  would 
look  for  the  revelation  of  the  divine  ideal  of 
life,  individual  and  collective;  for  the  in- 
spiration to  aspire  to  it;  and  for  the  power 
to  realise  it  in  personal  experience  and  all 
social  relationships. 

119 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  FAMILY:  FIELD,  FUNCTION,  AND  TKIBUTARY 
AGENCIES 

NOTHING  human  is  so  identified  with  all  that 
that  is  divine  as  is  the  family.  Like  the  sac- 
rament itself,  it  is  the  visible  sign  of  all  the 
invisible  sanctities  of  religion;  the  type  of 
its  relationships,  Godward  and  manward; 
the  mould  in  which  both  the  form  and  spirit 
of  the  Church  were  divinely  purposed  to  be 
cast.  Historically  the  family  is  the  single 
source  to  which  all  the  synagogues  and  tem- 
ples of  Judaism  and  all  the  churches  of 
Christendom  are  to  be  traced.  Wherever, 
like  the  sun's  rays,  their  "  lines  have  gone 
out  throughout  the  earth  and  their  words  to 
the  end  of  the  world, "  they  all  converge  in 
Abraham's  household,  and  in  "  the  Church 
that  was  in  their  house  "  who  first  accepted 
120 


THE   FAMILY 

the  Christian  evangel.  The  temple  on  Mount 
Zion  strengthened  the  stakes  and  lengthened 
the  cords  of  the  patriarch's  tent  and  of  the 
tabernacle  within  which  the  nomad  tribes 
shared  with  Jehovah,  their  God,  ' i  his  rest. ' ' 
The  portal  through  which  Christianity 
found  entrance  to  Europe  was  the  open- 
hearted  households  of  Lydia  and  the  manly 
Roman  jailer,  who  "  believing  in  God  with 
all  his  house,"  "  was  baptised,  he  and  all  his, 
straightway. ' ' 

From  so  natural  and  ordinary  and  human 
a  thing  as  the  family,  such  a  supernatural 
and  extraordinary  and  divine  a  thing  as  re- 
ligion sprang,  and  ever  springs.  It  is  diffi- 
cult, if  not  impossible,  to  conceive  of  re- 
ligion apart  from  the  family.  It  is  less  diffi- 
cult to  think  of  reconstituting  the  human 
race,  and  the  relations  which  make  the  race 
human,  if  it  had  to  begin  over  again,  without 
the  Church  rather  than  without  the  home. 
Indeed,  religion  could  more  readily  be  repro- 
duced from  the  family,  if  the  Church  were  lost, 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

than  it  could  be  maintained  by  the  Church  if 
the  family  were  lost.  Prior  to,  and  the  norm 
of,  the  Church,  the  family  is,  therefore,  the 
birthplace  of  religion.  The  parent  is  the 
first  priest.  The  children  and  household  are 
the  first  congregation.  The  Holy  Family  is 
the  great  seal  of  Christianity.  The  mother 
and  the  child  are  its  sign  manual.  The 
Church  was  cradled  in  the  manger  at  Bethle- 
hem. The  incarnation,  for  which  that  birth 
stands,  is  the  all-inclusive,  fundamental  doc- 
trine and  experience  of  Christianity,  allying 
it  with  the  Old  Testament  tenet  of  the  crea- 
tion by  one  Creator. 

Biologically,  the  family  is  the  primary  cell 
of  the  whole  social  organism.  Church  and 
state  therefore  exist  more  for  the  family 
than  the  family  for  either.  In  its  very  first 
function — the  reproduction  of  life,  the  per- 
petuation of  the  race — the  family  shares  the 
creative  prerogative  of  the  life-giver.  It  ful- 
fils his  fiat,  "  let  us  make  man  in  our  image. " 
Through  the  family,  as  through  no  other 


THE    FAMILY 

human  relationship,  God  continues  to  create 
male  and  female  after  his  likeness  to  share 
his  dominion.  So  the  first  act  of  religion  is, 
or  should  be,  to  safeguard  and  promote  the 
family  in  the  fulfilment  of  its  primary  func- 
tions for  the  individual  and  social  life. 

The  first  of  these  is  birth — the  reproduc- 
tion of  the  race.  It  is  declared  to  be  such 
both  by  nature  and  revelation.  Strong  as 
the  sex  impulse  is,  the  parental  instinct  is 
shown  to  be  deeper.  Ethnologists  since 
Westermarck  see  this  in  the  fact  that  the 
pairing  of  birds  and  the  higher  animals  sur- 
vives longer  than  the  sex  impulse  lasts,  and 
until  offspring  are  born  and  come  to  self- 
support.  In  all  normal  beings,  parentage 
roots  deeper  than  passion.  The  religious 
emphasis  upon  reproduction  is  impressed 
and  re-impressed,  from  the  story  of  the  crea- 
tion, through  the  genealogies  and  heredities 
of  Scripture,  to  the  prophetic  vision  of  the 
Holy  City,  "  full  of  boys  and  girls  playing  in 
the  streets  thereof." 

123 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

Here  upon  the  very  threshold  of  the  family 
and  within  its  holy  of  holies  we 'are  met  by 
the  hard  facts  with  which  our  modern  civ- 
ilisation faces  the  fulfilment  of  this  primary 
family  function.  The  cost  of  living  in  rela- 
tion to  the  reproduction  of  life,  the  restric- 
tion of  the  birth-rate  and  excessive  infant 
mortality  over  against  the  divine  blessing 
upon  birth,  the  overwork  of  women  nullify- 
ing motherhood,  child  labour  stealing  from 
the  race  its  play-time  and  its  years  for 
growth,  bad  housing  and  inhuman  city  ad- 
ministration making  good  homes  impossible, 
sex  perversions  and  exploitations  substitut- 
ing sacrilege  for  the  sanctity  of  marriage  and 
parentage — these  are  as  essentially  the  prob- 
lems of  religion  and  the  Church  as  of  the 
economic  and  political  sciences,  as  of  legisla- 
tion and  statesmanship.  For  generation 
conditions  regeneration.  The  first  birth 
very  certainly  limits  the  promise  and  the 
effect  of  the  "  second  birth."  Eeligion  can 
serve  its  own  ends  no  more  surely  or  highly 


THE   FAMILY 

than  to  assure  every  child  a  better  chance  to 
be  born  aright  the  first  time  so  that  it 
may  be  reborn  more  surely  and  to  higher 
purpose. 

It  was  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, the  Rev.  Thomas  Robert  Malthus,  who, 
in  1798,  made  the  first  thorough  attempt  to 
relate  the  birth-rate  to  the  food  supply.  His 
purpose  was  to  prove  that  "  among  the 
causes  which  impede  the  progress  of  man- 
kind toward  happiness,  the  chief  is  the  con- 
stant tendency  in  all  animated  life  to  increase 
beyond  the  nourishment  prepared  for  it." 

Although  his  statistics  by  which  he  sought 
to  establish  mathematically  the  ratio  be- 
tween the  increase  of  the  birth-rate  and  that 
of  the  food  supply  were  abandoned  by  the 
author  himself  as  untrustworthy,  and 
although  some  of  his  arguments  have  been 
superseded  by  the  criticisms  of  other  econo- 
mists, this  fundamental  "  Malthusian  "  re- 
lation between  birth  and  food  is  so  vital  that 
it  persists,  not  only  in  the  discussions  of  the 
125 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

economists,  but  among  the  most  serious  prac- 
tical problems  involving  marriage  and  fam- 
ily life. 

The  initiative  thus  given  to  scientific  in- 
quiry into  the  propagation  of  the  race  is 
now  proceeding  from  a  negative  to  a  positive 
basis  and  aim.  Daunted  by  what  seemed  at 
first  to  be  a  fixed  limit  to  the  sustenance  of 
life,  Malthus  over-emphasised  the  depend- 
ence for  progress  upon  the  checks  on  the 
increase  of  population — famine,  war,  dis- 
ease, vice,  and  the  restraints  of  intelligence 
and  the  moral  sense.  It  remained  for  Annie 
Besant,  nearly  a  century  later,  publicly  to 
justify  and  advocate  personally  applied  arti- 
ficial checks  upon  the  increase  of  the  family. 
The  little  volume  in  which  she  did  this  bore 
the  title,  The  Law  of  Population,  Its  Conse- 
quences, and  Its  Bearing  upon  Human  Con- 
duct and  Morals,  and  was  circulated  in  many 
cheap  editions  among  all  classes  of  British 
people,  especially  the  poor  of  East  London, 
with  such  unexpectedly  evil  results  that  the 
126 


THE    FAMILY 

authoress  herself  withdrew  the  booklet  from 
circulation. 

From  this  negative  attitude  of  despair, 
inquiries  at  last  are  turning  toward  a  posi- 
tive attitude  and  a  constructive  purpose. 
But  even  yet  the  very  consciousness  and  rec- 
ognition of  the  human  right  to  be  born  aright 
are  being  evolved  through  the  pressure  of  the 
burden  imposed  by  the  deficient  upon  the 
efficient. 

The  new  science  of  eugenics  wisely  places 
its  first  and  greatest  emphasis  upon  the  ne- 
cessity and  practicability  of  preventing  par- 
entage among  the  unfit.  It  claims  that  the 
segregation  of  the  feeble-minded  and  epilep- 
tic under  proper  public  care  will  prevent  the 
reproduction  of  nine-tenths  of  the  unfit.  It 
further  asserts  that  defects  and  inefficiency 
due  to  social  conditions  might  well-nigh 
be  eliminated  by  effective  protection  from 
race  poisons  due  to  vice-diseases,  alcohol, 
and  some  occupational  infections.  If  "  the 
ground-work  of  a  real  science  of  heredity  ' 
127 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

is  confessed  to  be  as  yet  "  not  sufficient  to 
justify  any  active  measures  to  guide  the  par- 
enthood of  the  worthy, "  the  possibilities  of 
positive  measures  are  nevertheless  the  hope 
of  these  pioneers  who  are  patiently  investi- 
gating the  way  toward  this  new  human  ad- 
vance. 

Some  noteworthy  practical  recognitions 
have  already  been  given  this  movement  of 
scientists  from  unexpected  quarters.  The 
American  stock  breeders'  faith  in  the  suc- 
cess of  their  own  efforts  to  improve  the  breed 
of  animals  is  sufficient  to  inspire  them  to 
add  a  department  of  eugenics  to  the  investi- 
gational  work  of  their  effective  association. 
The  first  legislative  recognition  of  a  eugenic 
public  policy  was  given  by  the  British  parlia- 
mentary measures  of  1909,  providing  for  a 
"  maternity  benefit  "  in  the  industrial  insur- 
ance act,  and  the  remission  of  7s.  6d.  for 
every  child  from  the  income  tax  upon  the 
head  of  each  family. 

The  first  ecclesiastical  body  to  act  with 
128 


THE    FAMILY 

practical  effect  to  this  end  is  the  Episcopal 
Cathedral  at  Chicago.  With  the  approval  of 
Bishop  Charles  P.  Anderson,  Dean  Walter 
T.  Simmer  announces  that  no  persons  will  be 
married  there  who  do  not  present  to  the 
clergy  a  certificate  from  a  reputable  physi- 
cian certifying  that  they  are  physically  and 
mentally  normal  and  have  neither  incurable 
nor  communicable  disease.  In  announcing 
this  decision  Dean  Sumner  well  says: 
"Surely  one  has  only  to  make  a  survey  of 
conditions  as  they  exist  to-day  to  be  aroused 
to  do  something  that  there  shall  not  be  left  in 
the  wake  of  married  life  sterility,  insanity, 
paralysis,  blinded  eyes  of  little  babes,  the 
twisted  limbs  of  deformed  children,  physical 
rot  and  mental  decay." 

The  combined  efforts  of  religion,  educa- 
tion, and  economics  are  nowhere  seen  to  be 
so  necessary  to  the  safety  of  the  individual, 
the  protection  and  promotion  of  the  family, 
and  the  progress  of  the  race  as  in  the  regula- 
tion of  sex  relationships  and  the  control  of 
129 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

the  birth-rate.  Economic  statistics  of  the 
cost  of  living  and  of  the  ratio  of  births  to  it 
avail  little  without  the  sex  education  of  the 
individual  and  the  religious  motive  power 
behind  that.  Indeed,  economic  conditions 
adverse  to  family  life  always  increase  the 
temptations  of  men  to  gratify  sex  impulse 
outside  of  family  relations,  multiply  illegiti- 
mate births,  and  result  in  desertions  of  wives 
and  children  and  ever  more  divorces.  Edu- 
cational efforts  have  only  begun  to  be  made 
through  literature  and  school  instruction  on 
sex  hygiene.  As  yet  a  very  small  proportion 
of  youth  are  thus  informed  and  safeguarded. 
Even  such  attempts  as  are  made  are  due 
principally  to  philanthropic  and  religious 
impulses  and  agencies.  How  to  introduce 
this  delicate,  difficult,  and  dangerous  subject 
in  our  schools  safely  and  effectively  is  a 
question  that  is  still  doubtfully  and  hesitat- 
ingly considered.  It  can  and  should  be 
done.  But  however  well  it  may  be  at- 
tempted in  the  schools,  or  through  literature, 
130 


THE    FAMILY 

it  will  be  more  than  offset  by  adverse  condi- 
tions in  the  home  life  of  pupils  and  can  effect 
little  without  parental  co-operation  with 
teachers.  So  the  school  and  the  printed 
page,  however  helpful,  are  not  adequate  of 
themselves.  Only  the  family  is  closely  and 
constantly  enough  in  contact  with  the  ado- 
lescent girl  and  boy  to  assure  their  training 
for  self-control.  Yet  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
any  direct  and  effective  family  effort  to  this 
end  is  sadly  exceptional,  and  such  as  is  at- 
tempted is  almost  always  made  under  the 
stress  of  religious  duty.  If  therefore  either 
the  home  or  the  school  does  its  duty  in  this 
respect,  it  will  be  due  mainly  to  the  initiative 
and  impulse  of  religion.  And  religion  must 
seek  other  than  ecclesiastical  agencies  to  do 
this  most  personal  and  yet  vitally  public 
work.  Through  its  Sunday  schools  and 
parochial  schools,  through  its  pastors  and 
father  confessors,  the  Church  may  do  much. 
But  it  requires  the  best  efforts  of  statesman- 
ship, education,  industry,  and  religion  to  do 
131 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

the  much  more  that  needs  to  be  done,  in 
order  to  train  not  only  every  child,  but 
adults  as  well ;  to  influence  parents  and  home 
conditions ;  to  repress  vice,  and  protect  youth 
and  the  family  from  it;  to  maintain  and 
develop  economic  conditions  favourable  to 
early  marriage,  and  working  conditions  at 
least  compatible  with  and  not  destructive 
of  family  life;  and  to  secure  such  local 
and  national  administration  of  government 
as  will  make  every  neighbourhood,  town, 
city,  state  and  nation  a  federation  of 
families. 

In  such  fellowships,  families  thus  fed- 
erated will  bring  into  closest  co-operation 
the  voluntary  and  official  agencies  of  each 
local  community;  of  infant  welfare  work 
with  departments  of  health;  of  juvenile 
courts  and  their  probation  officers  with  ju- 
venile protective  associations;  of  child-help- 
ing and  home-finding  societies  with  the  legal 
supervision  of  all  dependent  and  delinquent 
children  by  state  boards  of  charities,  county 


THE   FAMILY 

courts,  public  guardians,  police  departments, 
and  judges  of  juvenile  courts. 

To  fulfil  its  function  in  the  nurture  of  child 
life  and  in  the  development  of  the  adult 
through  the  fellowships,  rest,  and  recupera- 
tion of  home  life,  the  family  needs  the  most 
intimate  and  active  co-operation  of  school 
and  neighbourhood,  local  government  and 
church.  The  child  is  not  fully  born  until  it 
comes  to  years  of  discretion.  The.  law  does 
not  regard  the  minor  as  a  full-fledged  indi- 
vidual. It  holds  the  parents  responsible  for 
the  child  and  appoints  a  guardian  to  take  the 
parents'  place  when  it  is  vacated,  perverted, 
or  abandoned.  The  child 's  breach  of  the  law 
is  considered  "delinquency"  and  is  no 
longer  classified  as  "  criminal,"  like  that  of 
the  adult.  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell  well  de- 
scribes the  child  as  held  in  the  "  parental 
matrix  "  of  the  home  during  the  years  of  its 
minority.  So  vital  and  inevitable  is  the 
"  law  of  the  organic  unity  of  the  family  " 
which  he  profoundly  interprets  and  prac- 
133 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

tically  applies  that  lie  is  justified  by  human 
experience  in  claiming  the  most  potent  influ- 
ence over  character  to  be  that  of  the  family 
life,  which  is  unconsciously  exerted  and  in- 
voluntarily received,  especially  during  the 
first  seven  years  of  a  child's  life.  Then  the 
child  becomes  more  like  what  the  home  life 
is  than  like  what  we  tell  the  growing  boy  or 
girl  to  be.  This  fact  either  furthers  or  hin- 
ders the. work  of  both  school  and  church, 
teacher  and  pastor,  accordingly  as  the  family 
either  promotes  or  hinders  the  efforts  of 
these.  On  the  other  hand,  the  family  needs 
the  help  of  both  school  and  church,  teacher 
and  pastor,  law  and  government,  in  protect- 
ing and  promoting  the  development  of  the 
child  and  of  the  home  life  which  shapes  it. 
The  sanctity  of  marriage  and  restriction 
of  divorce,  upon  which  the  existence  of  the 
home  depends,  can  be  assured  only  as  mar- 
riage is  hallowed  by  religion  and  as  it  is  de- 
fended by  the  law  from  wanton  divorce  and 
desertion.  Teachers  and  pastors,  legislators 
134 


THE    FAMILY 

and  public  officials  should  consider  them- 
selves as  assistants  to  parents  in  the  defence 
and  upbuilding  of  the  home  and  should  be 
selected,  recognised,  and  used  by  them  as 
such.  Public  health  officers  and  sanitary  in- 
spectors should  be  considered  as  more  con- 
stantly serving  every  family  than  the  family 
physician.  The  school,  with  its  provisions 
for  instruction  and  play,  is  the  public  annex 
added  to  every  private  house.  The  public 
park,  playground,  and  recreation  centre  are 
extensions  of  every  family's  backyard  or 
walled-in  inner  court.  The  juvenile  court 
and  its  probation  officers,  the  parental  school 
for  truants  and  the  reform  school  for  delin- 
quents are  the  state-appointed  helpers  to 
parents,  to  aid  them  in  the  discipline  of  their 
children,  or  to  take  the  parents'  place  when 
they  fail. 

If  the  nurture  of  child  life  therefore  is  the 

prerogative  of  religion  as  truly  as  it  is  that 

of  the  family,  then  the  church  as  surely  as 

the  home  has  the  most  vital  interest  and  im- 

135 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

perative  duty  in  securing  such  public  funds 
and  officials  as  will  make  school  and  park 
systems,  health  and  police  departments,  laws 
and  courts  tributary  to  and  not  subversive 
of  the  normal  nurture  of  the  child.  Pastor 
and  Sunday-school  teacher  should  exercise 
watch  and  care  over  these  public  provisions 
for  fostering  the  health,  intelligence,  recrea- 
tion, and  morals  of  the  children  as  vigilantly 
as  they  do  their  work  within  the  Church. 

The  kind  and  degree  of  influence  exerted 
by  the  home  are  conditioned  by  the  house. 
For  the  house  not  only  shelters  but  shapes 
the  family  life  for  better  or  for  worse.  Bet- 
ter or  worse  housing  makes  all  the  difference 
between  normal,  abnormal,  or  sub-normal 
lives;  between  decency  and  modesty,  where 
space  enough  is  allowed,  and  indecency  and 
immodesty,  where  over-crowding  crowds  out 
self-respect.  Wherever  shop  work  is  taken 
into  the  house,  normal  family  life  is  crowded 
out  of  it.  When  wives  and  mothers  work 
away  from  home,  housekeeping  and  the  chil- 
136 


THE   FAMILY 

dren  pay  the  penalty.  Transient  rental  of 
furnished  rooms  strips  the  family  of  the  last 
vestige  of  home  equipment.  Taking  board- 
ers into  overcrowded  family  apartments  de- 
stroys family  unity  and  privacy,  interferes 
with  marital  and  parental  confidences, 
almost  always  imperils  virtue,  and  very  often 
destroys  it. 

What  therefore  can  be  more  domestic  or 
religious  than  to  secure  the  proper  housing 
of  families  such  as  will  make  homes  possible 
and  successful?  Should  the  sanctuary  of  the 
Church  be  more  sacred  to  its  worshipers  than 
their  duty  to  secure  right  building  ordinances 
and  efficient  building  departments,  garden 
cities,  industrial  villages,  and  decent  lodging 
houses  for  family-less  men  and  women? 
Should  not  every  church,  or  local  group  of 
churches,  be  considered  by  their  members  as 
housing  reform  associations  and  playground 
promoters,  just  as  legitimately  as  associa- 
tions of  commerce  are  regarding  this  to  be 
their  function!  Was  there  ever  a  more 
137 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

monumental  attestation  of  the  religious  qual- 
ity of  a  public  service  than  characterises  the 
framing  and  enactment  of  the  new  tenement 
house  law  of  New  York,  which  let  no  less 
than  a  million  people  out  of  dark  and  unven- 
tilated  apartments  into  the  light  and  air 
guaranteed  them  by  the  "  new  law  tene- 
ments." 

If,  as  we  have  seen,  the  family  furnishes 
the  terms  and  types  by  which  are  revealed 
our  relations  to  God  and  each  other,  then  the 
preservation  and  development  of  the  family 
is  our  primary  religious  duty.  For  how  can 
religion  itself  be  preserved  and  developed  if 
the  earthly  type  of  it  is  lowered  or  lost? 
How  can  we  even  pray  "  Our  Father  which 
art  in  heaven, "  if  earthly  fatherhood  lacks 
all  human  suggestion  of  the  divine!  If  we 
become  so  evil  that  we  know  not  how  to  give 
good  gifts  unto  our  children,  can  we  measure 
up  "  how  much  more  "  our  Father  which  is 
in  heaven  gives  good  things  to  them  that  ask 
him?  "  My  father's  house  "  can  mean  little 
138 


THE   FAMILY 

more  that  is  homelike  in  another  world  than 
it  does  in  this  world.  "  The  whole  family 
in  heaven  "  cannot  fail  to  mean  less  to  one 
who  has  suffered  from  a  divided  home  on 
earth. 

So  the  family  is  not  more  dependent  upon 
religion  than  religion  is  upon  the  family. 
The  hope  of  the  one  is  identified  with  that  of 
the  other.  Therefore  all  that  pertains  to 
family  life  and  promotes  it  is  as  religious  as 
religion  itself. 


139 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SURVIVAL,  AND  REVIVAL  OF  NEIGHBOURSHIP 

THERE  have  been  neighbours  as  long  as  there 
have  been  human  beings  on  earth.  It  is 
hard  to  tell  whether  families  or  neighbour- 
hoods came  first.  In  the  earliest  times  sin- 
gle family  groups  could  not  safely  live  far 
enough  apart  to  be  separated  at  all.  So  peo- 
ple of  the  same  kinship  formed  larger 
1 '  households, ' '  which  the  tribal  villages  were 
called.  From  this  rootage  in  kin  there  blos- 
somed the  whole  cluster  of  fragrant,  fruit- 
ful relationships,  reciprocities,  personal  and 
associated  interactions,  expressed  by  the  fa- 
miliar words  kindred,  kind,  kindness,  the 
contents  of  which  have  enriched  almost  every 
human  life  and  made  every  spot  on  earth 
where  they  have  rooted  and  flowered  more 
homelike  and  heavenly. 
140 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

Neighbours  were  those  next  to  each  other, 
both  in  kinship  and  locality.  To  be  next  to 
another  was  to  owe  him  something,  and  to 
have  some  rights  which  he  was  bound  to 
respect.  Neighbourly  obligations  were  as 
sacred  as  those  of  religion.  Indeed,  the  most 
ancient  faiths  found  their  highest  expression 
in  kinship  and  its  neighbourship.  Even 
after  the  tribes  and  kindreds  began  to  mingle 
and  merge  with  each  other,  neighbourliness 
survived.  It  is  therefore  our  most  primitive 
possession,  our  most  ancient  treasure,  the 
heritage  of  the  race,  the  one  thing  common  to 
all  who  share  the  same  origin,  and  to  all  of 
different  origins  who  live  near  each  other. 

By  an  instinct  as  primitive  as  this  racial 
possession  we  shrink  from  losing  it.  It  lin- 
gers, however,  more  among  the  poor  than 
among  the  rich,  more  among  the  plain  people 
than  the  so-called  privileged  class,  more 
among  those  who  have  only  a  "  common 
school  education  "  than  among  those  who 
are  said  to  have  a  "  liberal  education." 
141 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

Whatever  other  forms  of  association  we  sub- 
stitute for  this  old-time  neighbourship,  the 
loss  of  it  is  the  tragedy  of  our  new  times. 
The  substitution  of  artificial  relations  for 
this  instinctive  natural  relationship  accounts 
for  this  loss.  It  is  due  chiefly  to  the 
different  ways  in  which  most  of  us  in  mod- 
ern times  make  our  living.  In  the  olden 
times,  people  lived  in  small  communities, 
where  they  all  knew  each  other  and  neigh- 
bours lived  and  worked  together.  Neigh- 
bourship was  partnership — at  least  to  some 
extent.  Now  modern  industry  has  swept 
thousands,  even  millions,  away  from  their 
old  belongings.  Immigration  fortuitously 
mixes  people  of  many  languages  and  races, 
both  in  smaller  and  larger  places,  in  country 
and  city  communities.  The  adult  genera- 
tions of  native  and  foreign  people,  thus  lit- 
erally thrown  together,  cannot  mingle  with 
each  other,  and  never  would,  were  it  not  for 
their  children's  ministry  of  interpretation 
and  mediation.  They  cannot  understand  each 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

other's  language,  customs,  antecedents, 
ideals,  except  as  their  children  act  their  part 
as  natural  linguists  and  interpreters  of  the 
universal  and  the  human.  The  stranger  in 
the  strange  land  is  almost  the  commonest 
figure  we  meet,  almost  the  commonest  expe- 
rience the  newest  or  the  oldest  of  us  have. 
For  in  many  places  where  there  are  many 
more  newcomers  than  long-stayers,  the  ex- 
perience of  an  Irish  neighbour  becomes  com- 
mon, and  "  the  longer  one  stays,  the  more 
of  a  stranger  one  becomes. ' '  The  immigrant 
family  is  not  more  a  stranger  in  a  strange 
land  than  is  the  native  country  family  which 
moves  into  the  city.  Both  feel  utterly  lost 
and  alone. 

Although  more  interdependent  than  ever, 
the  subdivisions  of  labor  and  the  divisive 
interests  they  introduce  divide  people  of  the 
same  community  more  than  ever.  Other 
centres  than  those  of  the  neighbourhood 
gather  some  together  and  isolate  others. 
Seasonal  or  intermittent  occupations,  tem- 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

porary  jobs,  commercial  depressions,  occa- 
sional unemployment,  and  a  general  sense  of 
the  lack  of  permanency  in  the  tenure  of  their 
industrial  positions,  pull  settled  families  up 
by  the  roots  and  seldom  leave  them  long 
enough  in  one  place  to  take  root  again.  Our 
manual  workers  are  more  and  more  tran- 
sient. Many  among  them  are  forced  to  be- 
come tramping  families.  More  and  more 
men  leave  their  families  for  a  whole  season 
of  work  in  distant  parts  of  the  country,  or 
even  in  foreign  lands.  When  times  are  dull, 
or  the  "  season  "  is  over,  they  try  to  make 
their  way  "  back  home."  More  and  more 
of  these  multitudes  of  wandering  men  go 
back  and  forth  from  foreign  lands  to 
America,  neither  they  nor  their  families 
being  at  home  anywhere.  The  family  can 
thus  afford  less  household  equipment.  They 
have  less  at  stake  in  living  anywhere. 

What  it  means  for  the  family  group  thus 
to  lose  attachments  with  others  and  live  de- 
tached from  their  fellows,  few  of  us  who 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

have  never  approached  this  experience  can 
imagine.  At  first  it  may  drive  father, 
mother,  and  children  closer  together,  but 
only  at  first.  For  after  a  little  while,  one  or 
another  member  of  the  family  craves  a  larger 
life  than  its  own  little  home  circle  can  afford. 
As  its  community  of  interests  narrows  and 
shrivels,  each  member  of  the  family  turns  in- 
stinctively outward,  or  shrinks  up  within  a 
hermit  self.  Instead  of  going  together  they 
go  apart.  Instead  of  having  friends  in  com- 
mon, they  form  individual  friendships,  which 
other  members  of  the  family  do  not  share. 
Americanised  children  often  grow  to  be 
ashamed  of  their  foreign-born  parents. 
The  education  of  the  second  generation  be- 
comes the  tragedy  of  the  self-sacrificing  first 
generation.  Parents  become  more  depend- 
ent upon  even  their  little  children,  to  inter- 
pret to  them  the  strange  language  and 
strange  ways  of  the  strange  land,  than  the 
children  are  dependent  upon  their  parents. 
There  is  no  more  pathetic  figure  in  America 
145 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

than  the  immigrant  mother  desperately  cling- 
ing to  her  youngest  children  to  keep  them  all 
her  own,  while  she  vainly  struggles  to  keep 
pace  with  her  elder  children,  who  are  grow- 
ing away  from  her.  Worse  still,  some  of 
these  children  and  youth  who  thus  have  to 
grow  up  alone  even  at  home,  or,  still  more 
tragically,  away  from  home,  yield  to  the 
temptations  which  appeal  to  the  lonely  life 
and  feed  the  starved  heart  with  the  stones 
of  impersonal  relations  and  try  to  live  on 
lusts  instead  of  the  bread  of  natural  af- 
fection. 

Under  these  unnatural  conditions,  it  is 
almost  impossible  for  neighbourship  to  exist, 
or  even  for  the  family  to  survive.  Racial 
antipathies  array  fellow  immigrants  against 
each  otheir.  Suspicions  born  of  the  igno- 
rance of  strangers'  ways  keep  at  arm's 
length,  or  bring  only  within  striking  distance, 
the  native  and  foreign-born  citizens  of  the 
same  town. 

These  are  some  of  the  factors  and  forces 
146 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

of  our  industrial  era  that  destroy  neighbour- 
ship and  disintegrate  families.  Temporari- 
ness  characterises  every  feature  and  pros- 
pect of  such  a  population.  The  thought  of 
staying  in  a  tenement,  or  on  the  street,  or  in 
the  district  in  which  they  have  first  landed, 
or  where  they  are  not  succeeding  well,  is  in- 
tolerable to  those  who  have  aspirations  for 
themselves  or  their  children.  Truancy  is  as 
natural  as  the  school  is  new  to  the  pupil  and 
strange  to  the  parent.  Neighbourly  fellow- 
ship, the  Sunday-school  and  church  connec- 
tion, too  easily  seem  not  worth  while,  when 
the  family  expects  to  move  in  a  month  or 
two,  or  not  later  than  next  spring.  No  pro- 
vision is  made  by  the  parent  for  the  play  of 
the  child,  the  pleasure  of  youth,  the  social 
relation  of  the  sexes  in  a  majority  of  homes. 
These  recreations  become  as  little  and  low, 
as  unsatisfying  and  questionable,  as  danger- 
ously exciting  and  demoralizing  as  they  are 
merely  for  the  moment,  or  on  the  spot,  as 
they  are  provided  to  catch  only  the  loose 
147 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

penny,  the  idle  hour,  and  the  purposeless  and 
detached  mind.  Thus  people  lose  their  sense 
of  belonging  to  anything  or  anybody,  to  the 
neighbourhood,  the  craft  fellowship,  the 
church  membership,  to  citizenship,  and  at 
last  to  the  family  circle  itself. 

But  this  is  only  one  side  of  the  picture. 
For  the  struggle  of  neighbourliness  to  sur- 
vive and  express  itself  in  forms  adapted  to 
our  new  industrial  times  is  as  brave  and 
hopeful  as  the  loss  of  it  is  pathetic  and  dis- 
astrous. Sometimes  the  old  neighbourly  re- 
lationship is  transplanted  bodily  by  the  im- 
migrants themselves  to  the  soil  of  the  New 
World.  When  those  who  have  been  neigh- 
bours in  the  fatherland  find  themselves  near 
each  other  in  some  American  city,  they  form 
a  brotherhood,  usually  under  the  sanction  of 
their  church,  sometimes  bearing  the  name  of 
the  town  or  district  from  which  they  emi- 
grated, or  the  name  of  its  patron  saint. 
Thus  they  struggle  to  perpetuate  their  old- 
time  village  or  town  fellowship.  These 
148 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

transplanted  villages  or  town  neighbour- 
hoods, however,  are  not  destined  long  to  sur- 
vive the  rapid  and  irresistible  changes  in 
American  industrial  conditions. 

The  sodalities  and  orders  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  the  memberships  and  brotherhoods 
of  Protestant  Churches,  the  family-like  fel- 
lowships persistently  growing  out  of  and 
around  the  Jewish  synagogue,  which  is  the 
most  ancient  type  of  the  neighbourhood  still 
surviving,  perpetuate  the  spirit  of  neighbour- 
liness  and  give  it  more  or  less  flexible,  but 
long  accepted,  forms  of  development.  The 
fraternal  orders  and  insurance  fraternities 
utilise  the  old  neighbourly  instinct  to  stand 
by  each  other  in  the  rainy  day,  in  order 
to  cement  a  bond  which  binds  together  those 
of  different  race,  language,  creed,  and  condi- 
tion, perhaps  more  closely  than  was  done  by 
the  old-time  neighbourhood  itself.  The  mod- 
ern clubs  to  a  less  degree  furnish  circles  of 
association  around  commercial,  intellectual, 
social,  and  political  centres,  which,  however, 
149 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

rarely  survive  the  individual  member's  abil- 
ity to  pay  the  dues. 

Trade  unions  come  nearer  to  being  a 
natural  substitute,  in  some  instances,  for 
the  old  neighbourliness  that  has  passed 
away.  Though  not  lineal  descendants  from 
the  old  craft-guilds,  they  inherit  their  fra- 
ternity loyalty.  Community  of  interest  in 
the  same  crafts,  the  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion, which  leads  fellow  craftsmen  to  feel 
that  they  must  hang  together,  or  they  will 
hang  separately,  women's  auxiliaries  which 
add  to  some  unions  the  social  and  charita- 
ble features  of  the  family,  the  sole  de- 
pendence upon  the  benefit  of  the  union  for 
refuge  from  losses  by  accident,  sickness, 
lack  of  work,  the  lockout  and  strike,  old  age, 
and  the  death  of  the  breadwinner ;  these  very 
human  bonds  and  benefits  make  the  labour 
unions  the  only  possible  neighbourship  for 
many  thousands  of  wage-earners  in  America, 
who  would  otherwise  cease  to  be  or  to  have 
real  neighbours. 

150 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

Parallel  with  these  survivals  of  neighbour- 
ship, other  efforts  and  agencies  have  arisen 
to  revive  it.  These  deliberate  and  definite 
efforts  for  the  revival  of  neighbourhood  rela- 
tionships chiefly  centre  about  the  public 
school,  the  public  playground  and  recreation 
centre,  the  public  library,  churches  of  an  in- 
stitutional type,  and  social  settlements. 

No  more  hopeful  movement  to  unify  and 
advance  local  communities,  and  no  more  in- 
spiring prospect  of  doing  so,  is  to  be  noted 
in  America  than  that  which  seeks  to  use 
public  school  buildings  as  neighbourhood  cen- 
tres. The  common  school  is  common  ground. 
It  is,  as  it  always  has  been  and  will  be  more 
and  more,  that  little  patch  of  Mother  Earth 
which  belongs  to  all  of  us,  to  which  every 
one,  the  newest  immigrant  as  much  as  the 
oldest  inhabitant,  has  equal  claim,  where  all 
of  us  equally  have  common  rights  and  feel 
at  home  more  than  anywhere  else.  The  pub- 
lic school  is  therefore  our  greatest  social 
asset  as  well  as  our  only  natural  educational 
151 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

equipment.  It  is  our  one  great  and  only 
smelting  furnace  where  the  most  "  intract- 
able "  ores  of  our  cosmopolitan  population 
can  be  reduced,  by  the  steady  glow  of  civic 
patriotism  and  neighbourhood  fellowship,  to 
unalloyed  American  citizenship.  It  is  the 
common  denominator  for  the  solution  of  the 
problem  of  assimilating  the  diverse  elements 
of  our  population  into  one  body  politic.  It 
continues  to  be  such  long  after  the  town 
meeting  and  the  "  centre  church  "  ceased  to 
be  the  centres  of  social  unity  which  they  once 
were,  but  could  not  continue  to  be  under  the 
increasing  diversity  of  our  political  and  re- 
ligious development.  As  such,  both  the  pub- 
lic school  systems  and  buildings  should  be  put 
to  their  utmost  use,  not  only  educationally 
but  socially,  not  only  for  the  schooling  of 
children  but  for  the  training  of  adults,  the 
development  of  home  and  neighbourhood  life, 
the  safeguarding  and  promotion  of  the  local 
community.  Public  school  alumni  associa- 
tions, parents'  meetings,  evening  sessions, 
152 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

assembly  halls  and  roof  gardens,  art  exhib- 
its, gymnasiums  and  recreational  equipments 
and  neighbourhood  centre  uses  are  new  and 
invaluable  assets  in  the  possession  of  and  at 
the  command  of  every  local  community. 

Apparently  in  most  places  the  only  thing 
lacking  to  give  the  community  the  widest  use 
of  its  own  school  property  is  the  education  of 
the  Board  of  Education  to  a  view  of  its  func- 
tion as  wide  as  the  demands  of  the  people's 
needs  upon  their  schools,  and  to  a  manage- 
ment of  school  property  that  shall  be  more 
educational,  sanitary,  and  social  than  jani- 
torial. 

We  are  only  beginning  to  share  the  atten- 
tion we  have  paid  to  the  education  of  our 
children  with  the  equally  serious  problem  of 
their  recreation.  We  have  been  content 
merely  with  their  physical  exercise  and  have 
been  stupidly  obtuse  to  awakening  and  satis- 
fying the  pleasurable  interest  of  the  child 
in  his  play  and  in  the  organisation  of  it. 
But  at  last  we  are  coming  to  see,  with  dear 
153 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

old  Froebel,  that  the  divinely  implanted  and 
imperious  instinct  for  play  is  childhood's 
chief  concern  and  the  educator's  most  mas- 
terful asset.  But  it  is  far  more  than  this, 
for  neighbourhoods  and  cities  are  discover- 
ing the  civic  and  social  value  of  recreation 
centres  for  the  well-directed  play  of  the  citi- 
zenship of  to-morrow. 

Chicago  clearly  leads  the  world 's  way  in  its 
emphasis  upon  this  discovery.  Not  since  old 
Borne 's  Coliseum  and  the  Olympic  games  of 
Greece  has  any  city,  ancient  or  modern,  made 
such  provision  for  the  recreation  of  all  its 
people,  older  and  younger,  as  is  to  be  found 
in  Chicago's  great  playfields,  surrounding  its 
beautifully  designed  and  well-equipped  field- 
houses,  which  at  a  cost  of  over  $12,000,000  of 
the  taxpayers'  money,  have  become  the  so- 
cial centres  of  its  most  cosmopolitan,  densely 
populated  industrial  and  residential  districts. 
No  better  investment  of  a  city's  money  was 
ever  made  than  in  this  equipment  for  free 
and  innocent  play,  without  the  deteriorative 
154 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

and  demoralising  influences  which  the  ex- 
ploiters of  youth's  natural  recreative  instinct 
have  been  allowed  to  coin  into  gold  at  the 
cost  of  character  and  health,  even  without 
competition  with  the  vastly  superior  public 
resources.  But  this  well-invested  public  ex- 
pense for  recreational  space  and  equipment 
imperatively  demands  the  appropriation  of 
enough  more  money  and  talent  to  secure  the 
best  trained  and  most  capable  management 
of  playgrounds  and  direction  of  play  that 
can  be  produced  by  our  universities  and  tech- 
nical schools  for  social  training. 

The  National  Playground  Association  by 
its  leadership  towards  all  these  ends,  by  its 
practical  promotion  of  their  realisation  in 
any  community  seeking  its  counsel  and  by  its 
printed  proceedings,  which  include  the  best 
literature  on  play,  is  doing  a  country-wide 
work  of  great  educational,  civic,  moral,  and 
religious  value,  as  are  the  Young  Men's  and 
Young  Women's  Christian  Associations,  in 
the  practical  evangelism  of  their  physical  de- 
155 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

partments.  For,  whoever  and  whatever  helps 
children  and  youth,  and  adults  also,  to  have  a 
good  time  without  being  bad,  is  doing  a 
great  and  manifold  good,  which  is  not  only 
none  the  less,  but  all  the  more,  religious  for 
being  so  human. 

Equally  with  our  schools  and  playgrounds, 
our  public  library  buildings  and  branches  are 
proving  to  be  neighbourhood  centres  of  great 
civic  value.  They  share  with  the  schools  and 
the  playgrounds  the  opportunity  for  widest 
usefulness.  Where  they  are  combined  in  the 
same  building,  the  response  of  the  people  to 
each  of  them  is  all  the  greater.  Both  their 
opportunity  and  their  utility  as  neighbour- 
hood centres  demonstrate  the  necessity  for 
trained  children's  librarians.  Delivery  sta- 
tions and  loan  collections  of  books  in  fac- 
tories, schools,  churches,  and  settlements,  are 
proving  inexpensive  and  effective  agencies  of 
library  extension.  The  public  library,  like 
the  public  school  and  playground,  is  open  to 
all  comers.  Under  expert,  enterprising, 
156 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

practical  management,  it  can  lift  an  ever  in- 
creasingly large  proportion  of  its  neighbour- 
hood up  to  higher  standards  of  taste  and  as- 
piration and  fellowship.  And  besides  the 
democratising  of  culture,  it  confers  citizen- 
ship in  that  time-long,  world-wide  democracy 
of  the  "  Eepublic  of  Letters." 

The  neighbourhood  church  continues  to 
hold  up  the  common  ideals  of  religion  and 
generate  the  power  for  self-sacrificing  serv- 
ice. But  like  the  town  meeting,  it  could  not 
continue  to  be  the  neighbourhood  centre  for 
all  the  people  as  they  became  more  diverse  in 
religious  antecedents  and  conviction.  Like 
the  political  parties  the  churches  of  different 
faiths  divide  the  people  in  separate  fellow- 
ships. But  because  of  that  very  division 
they  often  unite  more  closely  together  those 
within  their  respective  communions.  This 
compact  group,  if  it  sees  and  seizes  its  op- 
portunity, will  serve  its  church  and  faith  the 
best  by  serving  its  neighbourhood  and  the 
whole  community  most.  By  being  tributary 
157 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

to  every  human  interest  of  its  neighbours, 
they  will  be  all  the  more  impelled  to  be  neigh- 
bours to  the  Church.  But  the  Church  must 
be  a  neighbour  itself,  in  order  to  have  the 
people  of  its  community  outside  of  its  mem- 
bership, neighbourly  to  it.  Neither  the 
neighbourhood  nor  the  Church  can  afford  to 
lack  or  lose  anything  of  neighbourliness 
which  it  can  promote.  One  of  the  supreme 
tests  which  the  Bible  in  both  Testaments  ap- 
plies is  the  question  put  to  every  one,  the 
answer  to  which  measures  the  religious  value 
of  the  character  of  each:  "  Who  is  my 
neighbour?  " 

Where  neighbourliness  has  died  out  or 
never  been  born,  or  has  been  weakened  by 
removals,  or  is  difficult  because  of  the  differ- 
ences of  race,  language,  religion,  customs, 
and  condition, — there  a  social  settlement  finds 
its  field  to  express  the  neighbourship  that 
remains,  revive  that  which  wanes,  or  create 
that  which  is  lacking.  Whatever  else  it  is 
or  does,  the  settlement  should  be  the  neigh- 
158 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

bourhood's  own  centre  for  the  enjoyment, 
practical  expression,  and  use  of  its  neigh- 
bourliness.  Self-initiated  and  self-governed 
neighbourhood  organisations  should  be  as 
much  at  home  there  as  the  supplementary 
clubs  and  classes  organised  and  managed  by 
the  residents.  They  should  work  not  to  do 
things  for,  but  with,  all  people  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood. The  settlement  exists  not  to  su- 
perimpose the  ideals  or  standards  of  one 
class  or  locality  upon  another,  but  to  help  the 
neighbours  develop  their  own  ideals  and 
standards.  Its  aim  is  to  make  neighbourli- 
ness  more  interesting,  necessary,  practicable, 
and  valuable  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child. 
The  settlement  succeeds  most  and  best  when 
the  neighbourhood  comes  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  itself,  awakens  to  the  possibility  of 
doing  for  itself,  and  realises  its  ambition  to 
control  itself  and  improve  its  conditions. 

In  the  effort  to  bring  this  about,  this  fact 
demonstrates   itself,    that   neighbourship   is 
best  promoted  when  neighbours  have  recog- 
159 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

nised  their  neighbourhood  to  be  a  part  of  the 
whole  city.  Likewise  the  interests  of  the 
whole  city  are  best  promoted  by  cultivating 
this  neighbourhood  consciousness  among  all 
the  people  of  every  locality. 

A  sense  of  detachment  of  the  part  from 
the  whole,  or  .the  whole  from  any  part,  is  as 
demoralising,  belittling  or  paralysing  to  one 
as  the  other.  People  lose  pride  and  power 
in  their  citizenship  with  the  loss  of  their 
neighbourly  relations  to  each  other.  And  on 
the  other  hand,  their  neighbourly  relations 
become  interesting,  influential,  and  so  well 
worth  while  that  they  cannot  afford  to  lose 
them,  when  they  are  made  effective  in  pro- 
moting the  progress  of  the  whole  city. 

Both  of  these  tendencies  have  been  strik- 
ingly illustrated  in  the  political  rehabilita- 
tion of  the  city  council  in  Chicago.  Seven- 
teen years  ago  the  voters  in  most  of  the 
wards  had  lost  their  sense  of  responsibility 
for  the  character  and  qualifications  of  the 
aldermen  they  sent  to  the  city  council  to  leg- 
160 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

islate  for  the  entire  city.  Their  local  pride 
and  neighbourhood  self-respect  in  being 
properly  represented  there  disappeared  with 
their  civic  consciousness.  The  Municipal 
Voters'  League,  however,  had  faith  in  the 
people  to  believe  that  both  could  be  revived. 
So  they  entered  upon  the  struggle  for  the 
"  long  distance  championship  "  by  inform- 
ing the  citizens  and  appealing  to  their  loyalty 
to  the  home-rule  principle,  applied  to  ward 
politics.  And  the  people  did  the  rest.  Ward 
clubs  independently  arose,  within  and  be- 
tween party  lines.  Local  improvement  asso- 
ciations, women's  clubs,  parish  societies, 
men's  organisations  began  to  play  politics 
with  a  public  purpose.  As  these  local  groups 
became  conscious  of  a  city-wide  sphere  and 
influence  they  began  to  take  hold  of  the  prob- 
lems of  their  home  localities  far  more  effect- 
ively than  ever  before.  The  political  revolu- 
tion found  the  source  of  its  sustained  sup- 
port in  the  revival  of  the  neighbourhood 
spirit.  And  yet  the  neighbourhood  spirit 
161 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

revived  only  at  the  call  for  civic  loyalty.  In 
no  other  way  can  the  decisive  victories  of 
the  people  in  electing  the  candidates  endorsed 
by  the  Municipal  Voters'  League  be  accounted 
for.  This  revolution  could  not  have  taken 
place  and  maintained  its  increasing  power 
during  the  past  seventeen  years,  had  it  not 
been  rooted  in  a  quickened  neighbourhood 
life  throughout  the  city. 

Very  notably  did  these  two  influences  re- 
ciprocally develop  each  other  in  one  of  the 
largest  family  tenement-house  wards  in  the 
city.  The  racial  transformation  of  its  immi- 
grant population  had  begun  to  set  in. 
Northern  Europeans  began  to  disintegrate 
and  lose  heart  in  the  maintenance  of  their 
ascendancy  in  the  population.  Judged  by 
their  representatives  in  the  council,  however, 
their  political  ideals  and  independence  had 
not  for  several  years  been  worthy  of  their 
personal  character  or  standards  of  family 
life.  But  when  the  city's  appeal  for  better 
representatives  from  this  ward  in  the  city 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

council  was  put  up  to  its  citizens  at  Chicago 
Commons,  they  responded  as  promptly  and 
effectively  as  those  of  any  ward  in  the  city. 
Swinging  the  independent  vote  as  a  balance 
of  power,  for  sixteen  years  in  succession  they 
have  selected  and  elected  the  better  men  for 
aldermen  irrespective  of  party.  And  they 
have  superseded  the  very  worst  men  in  the 
council  by  aldermen  who  have  ranked  among 
the  very  best  in  their  work  for  the  ward  not 
only,  but  in  their  service  of  the  whole  city. 
Meanwhile  people  who  found  it  possible 
to  do  this  great  service  for  the  city  were 
roused  thereby  to  serve  their  own  neighbour- 
hoods. Street  paving,  street  lighting,  and 
street  cleaning  were  greatly  improved.  The 
ward  got  its  share  of  new  school  buildings 
and  secured  one  of  the  best  of  the  new  recrea- 
tion centres.  Vicious  resorts  and  gambling 
houses  were  suppressed.  The  number  of  sa- 
loons decreased.  Recreations  of  a  higher 
type  were  supported.  While  these  things 
could  not  have  been  done  without  the  influ- 
163 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

ence  of  the  ward's  better  aldermen  in  the 
council,  it  would  not  have  had  influential 
aldermen,  and  they  could  not  have  gotten  the 
necessary  support  from  their  constituents, 
without  the  revived  neighbourship  which 
united  the  people  of  twenty-five  different 
nationalities  in  organisations  of  their  own 
to  overthrow  the  bosses  and  ignore  the  ma- 
chines and  take  their  own  affairs  into  their 
own  hands.  The  example  set  by  this  popula- 
tion of  70,000  immigrant  working  people  in- 
spired similar  efforts  all  over  the  city. 

If  the  plans  for  the  city  beautiful  promoted 
by  Chicago's  commercial  leaders  and  de- 
signed by  its  artist-architects  furnish  the 
goal  toward  which  the  development  of  the 
city  shall  work,  the  realisation  of  the  greater 
and  better  Chicago  will  be  made  possible 
only  by  this  revival  of  the  family  virtues, 
working  through  good  neighbourship  to  make 
the  city  worthier  of  its  homes,  a  better  place 
for  the  next  little  child  to  be  born  in, 
and  where  its  boys  and  girls  may  grow 


NEIGHBOURSHIP 

into    a   nobler    manhood    and    womanhood. 

Neighbourhoods  are  the  source  of  civic 
strength  for  progress,  and  the  city  is  the 
source  of  inspiration  for  neighbourhood 
spirit  and  co-operation.  If  detachment  re- 
sults in  the  apathy  and  demoralisation  of 
both,  then  in  the  re-attachment  of  each  to  the 
other,  and  in  the  identification  of  both  in  the 
common  cause,  is  to  be  found  the  open  secret 
of  successful  democracy. 

To  be  friends  in  citizenship  and  neighbour- 
ship is  necessary  to  both.  Friendship  among 
neighbours  and  citizens  as  such,  in  securing 
justice  and  opportunity  for  themselves  and 
all  others,  is  the  real  thing  which  is  only  be- 
ginning to  supersede  the  perversion  of  it  in 
politics.  It  is  both  the  opportunity  and  obli- 
gation of  religion  to  promote  such  friend- 
ship, because  through  it  only  can  be  obtained 
not  charity  alone,  but  that  justice  which,  by 
giving  equality  of  opportunity  to  the  citizen, 
makes  possible  the  progress  of  the  city  and 
the  state.  "If  citizens  be  friends  they  have 
165 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

no  need  of  justice,  but  though  they  be  just 
they  need  friendship  or  love  also ;  indeed,  the 
completest  realisation  of  justice  seems  to  be 
the  realisation  of  friendship  and  love  also." 
The  neighbourhood  is  to  be  regarded  as  an 
extension  of  the  home  and  the  Church,  and 
is  identified  closely  with  both.  As  such  it 
should  be  sacred  both  to  the  family  and  the 
religious  instincts  and  interests  in  every 
community.  Indeed  the  community  of  fam- 
ily interests  and  the  communion  of  the 
Church  fellowship  are  akin  to  those  of  the 
neighbourhood.  In  all  three  of  these  vital 
human  relationships  having  in  common  and 
sharing  in  common  are  the  sacramental  signs 
of  membership.  All  three,  home,  neighbour- 
hood, and  Church,  share  a  common  religious 
origin,  sanction,  aim,  and  spirit.  No  one 
of  them  can  fulfil  its  function  without  the 
co-operation  of  the  others.  They  are  inter- 
sphering  circles  whose  circumference  in- 
cludes most  that  is  human  and  whose  centre 
is  divine. 

166 


CHAPTEE  IX 

INDUSTRY  AND  RELIGION:  THEIR  COMMON 
GROUND  AND  INTERDEPENDENCE  * 

INDUSTRY  and  religion  with  education  state 
and  solve  the  problem  of  human  life  when 
on  common  ground.  Apart,  much  more  in 
antagonism,  they  prove  existence  to  be  a 
tragedy.  For  what  is  industry?  In  human 
terms,  it  is  the  base-line,  the  rootage,  the 
very  condition  of  existence.  And  religion 
with  education  is  the  sky-line,  the  atmos- 
phere, the  horizon  of  life,  which  makes  it 
more  than  meat,  and  the  body  more  than 
raiment,  and  without  which  life  is  not  worth 
the  living. 

Apart  from  religion  and  education,  and 
the  human  value  with  which  they  invest  toil, 
its  process  and  its  product,  we  have  a  body 

*  This  chapter  appeared  in  The  Merrick  Lectures,  1907-08, 
under  the  title  "The  Social  Application  of  Religion,"  Jen- 
nings and  Graham,  New  York. 

167 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

without  a  soul,  lungs  without  any  air  to 
breathe,  eyes  without  any  light  to  see 
through,  earth  without  atmosphere  or  sky. 
On  the  other  hand,  religion  and  education 
without  industry  give  us  only  disembodied 
spirit,  life  on  earth  without  the  conditions  of 
an  earthly  existence. 

The  essentials  of  industry  and  religion, 
not  their  organisations,  are  our  first  consid- 
eration. Common  ground  is  sought  on  which 
to  consider  their  overarching  ideals  and  their 
undergirding  motives  which  hold  the  con- 
stituency of  each  together,  reserving  for  sub- 
sequent inquiry  the  relations  between  the 
Church  or  other  ecclesiastical  expressions  of 
organised  religion  and  the  agencies  of  em- 
ploying capital  and  of  organised  labour. 
Have  religion  and  industry,  in  their  largest 
and  most  essential  human  significance,-  any- 
thing in  common!  What  have  they  to  do 
with  each  other?  Is  there  any  common 
ground  where  they  can,  and  ought,  and  must 
stand  together,  if  these  two  essential  func- 
168 


INDUSTRY   AND   RELIGION 

tions  and  ideals  of  human  life  are  to  fulfil 
their  part  in  the  order  of  existence? 

In  the  foreground  of  our  discussion  lies 
the  portentous  fact  that  the  religions  of  the 
western  world  are  entering  the  second  indus- 
trial century  of  human  history.  What  that 
means  we  have  scarcely  begun  to  imagine. 
But  the  first  century  of  modern  industry 
stands  in  the  clear.  The  nineteenth  century 
was  ushered  into  history  by  the  whir  of  the 
power-loom  which  had  then  just  fairly  got  to 
work.  When  the  hand-loom  ceased  to  beat 
the  measured  tread  of  all  the  centuries  gone 
by,  and  the  power-loom  began  to  set  the  pace 
of  modern  life,  then  medievalism  ended  and 
times  altogether  new  began.  So  much  more 
rapid  and  radical  than  any  other  change 
through  which  civilisation  has  ever  passed 
was  the  transformation  wrought  by  the  in- 
troduction of  machinery,  the  concentration 
of  capital,  the  establishment  of  the  competi- 
tive order,  and  the  subdivision  and  organisa- 
tion of  labour  that  the  appearance  of  those 
169 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

new  factors  among  men  is  recognised  as 
"  the  industrial  revolution."  More  than 
anything  else  which  had  yet  been  introduced 
into  the  world  they  began  to  weave  human 
life  itself  not  only  into  a  new  pattern  but 
into  a  new  texture.  In  less  than  thirty  years 
the  new  machinery  virtually  revolutionised 
the  world's  life  and  began  to  change  the  very 
face  of  the  earth. 

We  are  far  enough  away  from  that  abrupt 
break  with  the  past  to  inquire  whither  we  are 
being  borne  on  the  still  rising  tides  of  the 
new  times.  Whither  away  is  modern  indus- 
trialism bearing  human  life  upon  its  resist- 
less streams  of  tendency!  From  the  course 
it  took  through  its  first  hundred  years  we 
can  discern  at  least  the  direction  of  the  chan- 
nels through  which  its  swift  and  tumultuous 
tendencies  are  forging  their  way  into  the 
times  that  are  to  be. 

With  the  French  revolution  the  individual 
began  to  gain  a  new  independence.  That 
mighty  revolt  against  the  order  of  life  which 
170 


INDUSTRY   AND   RELIGION 

had  for  centuries  merged  the  one  man  in 
the  mass,  forever  broke  up  the  ancient  sol- 
idarity. Out  of  the  death  of  feudalism  came 
the  birth  of  democracy.  The  democratic  in- 
dividual was  being  born  politically  when  ma- 
chinery appeared  to  give  him  a  new  world  to 
conquer.  All  the  inherent  and  attendant 
forces  of  machine  production  conspired  to 
intensify  the  independent  individuality  of 
those  who  exploited  the  tools  of  production. 
Even  the  many  more  who  were  left  to  work 
with  their  bare  hands,  without  either  the  ma- 
terial or  the  machinery  for  producing  their 
own  living,  were  individualised  as  never  be- 
fore. The  serf  was  no  longer  tied  to  the  soil. 
Liberty  of  movement  came  in  for  the  first 
time  with  the  world  market,  and  labour  could 
go  where  there  was  the  greatest  demand  for 
it.  The  individual  became  the  new  unit  of 
society. 

No  sooner  had  the  type  of  this  new  indi- 
vidual unit  been  fairly  and  firmly  set  than 
the  same  forces  immediately  began  to  put 
171 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

together  those  who  had  been  separated  from 
their  groups.  The  industrial  process  of  re- 
integration  set  in.  The  forces  resident  in  or 
centred  about  machine  production  and  the 
subdivision  of  labour  began  to  assert  their 
superiority  to  the  domination  of  the  very 
individuals  who  created  and  until  recently 
controlled  them.  The  tendency  of  this  new 
industrial  society  has  been  more  and  more 
from  individual  independence  to  the  interde- 
pendence of  man  upon  man,  craft  upon  craft, 
class  upon  class,  nation  upon  nation.  Be- 
fore this  century  was  half  over  industrial  life 
swept  away  from  unrestricted  competition  to 
a  combination  of  capital  and  labour  as  inevi- 
table and  involuntary  as  the  pull  of  the  moon 
upon  the  tides.  From  the  personal  main- 
tenance of  the  freedom  of  contract,  the  wage- 
workers  were  driven  to  the  only  possible 
exercise  of  that  right  by  collective  bargain- 
ing. Politically,  the  trend  has  been  from 
local  autonomy  and  state  rights  to  national 
and  international  consolidation.  Socially, 
112 


INDUSTRY   AND   RELIGION 

whole  racial  populations  have  been  blended 
more  and  more  in  huge  cosmopolitan,  com- 
posite citizenships.  The  irresistible  ground 
swell  and  tidal  movement  of  the  present 
quarter  century  has  been  away  from  indi- 
vidualism toward  a  new  solidarity. 

Yet  beneath  all  the  overlying  turmoil  and 
friction,  injustice,  and  menace  attending  this 
rapid  and  radical  readjustment,  there  is  cer- 
tainly developing  a  larger  liberty  at  least  for 
the  class,  a  rising  standard  of  living  for  the 
mass,  a  stronger  defence  against  the  aggres- 
sion of  one  class  upon  another,  and  a  firmer 
basis  and  more  authoritative  power  to  make 
and  maintain  peaceful  and  permanent  settle- 
ments of  industrial  differences.  More 
slowly  but  surely  there  are  developing  legal 
forms  and  sanctions  which  not  only  make  for 
justice  and  peace  between  employers  and 
employes,  but  for  the  recognition  of  the 
rights  and  final  authority  of  that  third  and 
greatest  party  to  every  industrial  interest 
and  issue — the  public. 

173 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

All  Christian  and  Jewish  faiths  are  inex- 
tricably identified  with  these  human  factors 
of  the  industrial  problem.  Their  destiny  is 
inevitably  involved  in  these  irresistible  tend- 
encies in  our  industrial  democracy.  Not  for 
the  first  time  is  the  power  of  the  Christian 
ideal  and  faith  being  tested  by  its  ability  to 
solve  the  problems  it  has  raised.  For  Chris- 
tianity has  ever  intensified,  if  it  did  not 
create,  the  industrial  crises  which  attended 
its  birth  and  rejuvenescence.  The  Christian 
evangel  has  all  along  held  the  ideal  overhead 
and  the  dynamic  within  the  heart  which  have 
inspired  a  divine  discontent.  Every  now 
and  then  the  Gospel  strikes  the  earth  under 
the  feet  of  the  common  man,  and  he  rises  up 
and  demands  to  be  counted  as  one.  Old  John 
Wyclif's  categorical  imperative,  "  Father 
he  bade  us  all  him  call,  masters  we  have 
none,"  inspired  Piers  Ploughman,  the  first 
great  labour  song;  John  Ball,  whose  field 
preaching  was  a  declaration  of  rights;  and 
Wat  Tyler,  who  led  the  peasants'  strike. 
174 


INDUSTRY   AND   RELIGION 

Many  another  labour  movement  has  inscribed 
no  more  nor  less  upon  its  banners  than  the 
Swabian  peasants  had  upon  theirs,  a  serf 
kneeling  at  the  cross  with  the  legend,  "  Noth- 
ing but  God's  justice. "  The  progress  of  the 
democracy  has  often  halted  in  passing  tem- 
ple and  church,  and  listened  at  their  oracles 
to  hear  whether  they  could  express  religious 
ideals  and  precepts  in  terms  of  industrial 
relationship ;  whether  it  would  let  the  worker 
be  the  man  the  free  gospel  and  the  free 
school  have  taught  him  to  know  himself  to  be. 
Protestant  Christianity  has  from  its  very 
birth  been  persistently  faced  with  the  de- 
mand for  the  economic  justice  and  industrial 
peace  promised  by  the  prophets  and  pro- 
claimed in  the  name  of  Christ.  The  Refor* 
mation  of  the  sixteenth  century  must  be  ad- 
mitted to  have  fallen  short,  however  excus- 
ably, of  the  great  moral  and  social  results 
which  would  have  been  its  legitimate  con- 
summation if  its  splendid  beginnings  could 
have  been  carried  on  and  out.  For  it  was 
175 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

made  possible,  more  perhaps  than  by  any- 
thing else,  by  the  social  discontent  of  the 
oppressed  peasantry.  Luther's  protest 
found  its  most  fertile  soil  in  those  suffering 
from  the  oppressive  industrial  conditions 
under  which  people  had  been  robbed  and 
beaten  to  the  point  of  revolt.  The  economic 
side  of  the  great  Eeformation  is  yet  to  be 
written.  So  far  it  has  received  scant  em- 
phasis except  in  the  radical  literature  of 
writers  avowedly  inimical  to  Christianity. 

At  the  rise  of  the  evangelical  movement  in 
the  eighteenth  century  the  Wesleys  had  no 
sooner  raised  that  standard  of  reality  in  re- 
ligion than  they  found  themselves  face  to 
face  with  this  same  imperative  industrial 
problem.  The  Methodist  chapels  and  class 
meetings  trained  both  the  leaders  and  the 
mass  of  the  British  working  people  for  their 
trade  union  movement,  which  was  one  of  the 
incidental  and  most  far-reaching  results  of 
the  revival  in  England.  The  rise  of  the 
great  middle  classes  to  their  activity  in  social 
176 


INDUSTRY  AND   RELIGION 

reforms  is  due  to  this  same  evangel  which 
brought  the  sunrise  of  a  new  day  out  of  the 
leaden  skies  of  eighteenth  century  England. 
Further,  the  rise  of  the  factory  system  sud- 
denly put  the  Christianity  of  the  nineteenth 
century  to  the  test  of  its  supreme  crisis.  It 
was  the  evangel  of  the  seventh  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury,  of  Frederick  Denison  Maurice, 
and  of  Charles  Kingsley,  which,  more  than 
the  Duke  of  Wellington's  battalions,  saved 
Great  Britain  from  the  revolution  threatened 
by  the  Chartist  movement  to  the  evolution 
which  has  sanely  and  surely  developed  Eng- 
land's magnificent  legislative,  municipal,  and 
social  progress  in  the  last  quarter  century. 

The  present  crisis  in  industrial  relation- 
ship tests  the  capacity  of  the  Christianity 
of  the  churches  to  adapt  itself  to  the  modern 
conditions  of  life,  and  marks  the  point  at 
which  it  will  either  make  another  great  ad- 
vance or  suffer  a  sharp  decline.  It  must  find 
terms  of  economic  and  industrial  relationship 
in  which  to  express  and  impress  its  sanc- 
177 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

tions,  if  it  is  to  survive,  much  more  guide 
and  dominate  life  in  this  industrial  age.  And 
our  system  and  methods  of  industry  must 
find  terms  of  religious  spirit  and  fellowship 
in  which  to  justify  their  claim  to  be  forces 
making  for  righteousness  and  for  the  prog- 
ress of  the  race.  This  interdependence  of 
religion  and  industry  states  the  problem  of 
finding  common  ground,  on  which  they  make 
it  possible  for  each  other  to  fulfil  their 
essential  function,  a  common  ground  upon 
which  religious  industrial  life  may  become 
actual  in  this  age  of  the  world. 

There  are  at  least  three  human  interests 
upon  which  both  industry  and  religion  set 
their  value.  At  three  points  the  industrial 
and  religious  valuations  must  either  find  a 
common  denominator  or  be  fatally  exclusive 
of  each  other.  Eeligion  and  industry  test 
each  other  by  the  valuation  which  each  puts 
upon  every  human  life,  upon  the  standard 
of  living,  upon  union  through  sacrifice  as 
essential  to  progress. 

178 


INDUSTRY   AND   RELIGION 

Upon  each  human  life  religion  has  ever 
placed    a    divine    valuation.    In    both    the 
Jewish  and  Christian  faiths  God  identifies 
himself  with  each  single  self,  by  creating 
man  in  his  own  image  and  likeness  and  by 
standing  in  between  each  life  and  self-neglect 
or  the  aggression  of  others.    When  the  king 
of  Israel  was  self-convicted  of  blood-guilti- 
ness in  sending  a  common  soldier  to  his 
death,  he  cried  out,  as  though  he  had  struck 
at  the  very  life  of  God,  l  '  Against  thee,  thee 
only,  have  I  sinned. "    The  Roman  who  was 
capable  of  coining  the  sentiment  "  Nothing 
that  is  common  to  man  is  foreign  to  me," 
was  also  capable  of  divorcing  his  wife  be- 
cause she  did  not  expose  to  death  the  girl- 
baby  born  in  his  absence,  so  disappointed 
was  he  that  the  child  was  not  a  boy.    Yet  at 
that  very  time  Christianity  began  to  invest 
every  life  with  such  a  divine  sanctity  that 
the  law  of  every  Christian  nation  has  ever 
since  gotten  in  between,  not  only  the  parent 
and  the  child,  but  between  even  the  mother 
179 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL  ACTION 

and  the  unborn  babe.  In  America  we  put  a 
valuation  upon  every  child  so  great  that  we 
can  afford  to  make  the  school  tax  heavy 
rather  than  to  have  any  boy  or  girl  grow  up 
uneducated.  The  right  to  life  is  so  sacred 
that  every  community  in  Christendom  bears 
the  burden  of  providing  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter  to  every  helpless  person,  no  matter 
how  useless  to  self  or  others  such  an  one 
may  be.  More  than  by  any  speech,  symbol, 
or  act  of  man,  "  the  cross  "  sets  God's  esti- 
mate upon  the  value  of  every  man,  woman, 
and  child.  And  it  has  imposed  upon  the  re- 
ligious conscience  that  sense  of  the  worth  of 
a  life  which  is  expressed  in  what  we  call  "  the 
burden  of  the  soul." 

How  then  does  the  industrial  valuation  of 
the  same  life  accord  with  the  religious  value 
of  the  soul?  Our  economists,  indeed,  esti- 
mate each  able-bodied  working-man's  life  to 
be  worth  at  least  two  thousand  dollars  to  the 
working  wealth  of  the  nation.  But  in  shame- 
less inconsistency  with  these  estimates  of 
180 


INDUSTRY   AND   RELIGION 

our  religions,  ideal,  and  economic  valuation 
stands  the  industrial  depreciation  of  the 
value  of  a  human  life.  Let  the  price-mark 
on  a  life  be  set  by  the  overwork  of  women, 
with  which  the  courts  are  interfering  to  pro- 
tect the  nation  and  the  race  from  the  de- 
terioration of  their  offspring.  Let  the  insa- 
tiable waste  of  child  labour  be  measured  by 
the  instinct  of  self-protection  which  forces 
nations  to  protect  themselves  from  the  in- 
dustrial depletion  of  the  very  stock  of  the 
race.  Let  the  frightful  industrial  casualties 
in  America  sound  the  depths  of  our  own  dis- 
regard of  human  life  and  safety  by  the  lists 
of  the  dead  and  wounded,  disabled  and  miss- 
ing, which  in  some  industries  exceed  the 
casualties  of  the  deadliest  battle-fields  of  our 
worst  wars.  Let  our  conscienceless  indiffer- 
ence to  the  grievous  burden  imposed  by  the 
breadwinner's  death  be  arraigned  by  our 
prolonged  refusal  to  distribute  that  burden 
of  supporting  the  dependent  families  of  the 
slain  or  disabled  workers  as  it  is  distributed 
181 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

in  other  lands  between  the  owners  of  the  in- 
dustry, the  taxpayers  of  the  state,  and  the 
wage-earners. 

What  makes  the  workaday  life  a  tragedy 
is  the  hopelessly  inconsistent  disparity  be- 
tween the  valuation  which  the  industries  and 
the  religion  of  the  same  people  put  upon  the 
same  life.  The  claim  of  religious  people  to 
love  the  "  soul,"  seems  the  cruelest  hypoc- 
risy when  identified  with  the  heedless  care- 
lessness for  the  very  life  of  the  same  person. 
It  would  seem  that  to  make  good  its  claims 
to  bearing  the  burden  of  souls,  religion  must 
find  concrete  measures  of  industrial  protec- 
tion in  which  to  express  its  care  for  the  lives 
of  men.  And  yet,  until  very  recently,  the 
working  people  of  America  have  been  left 
alone  by  the  influential  constituencies  of  the 
churches  to  make  their  hard  and  heroic 
struggle  for  self-protection.  First  in  the 
field,  hardest  at  work  has  organised  labour 
been  to  protect  the  religious  and  educational 
sanctity  cf  each  working  life,  to  regulate  or 
182 


INDUSTRY   AND   RELIGION 

suppress  child  labour,  to  shorten  the  hours 
and  improve  the  conditions  of  women's  work. 
But  efforts  of  others  should  not  be  for- 
gotten. The  splendid  initiative  of  the  Earl 
of  Shaftesbury  in  placing  the  factory  acts 
on  the  statute  books  of  England  two  genera- 
tions ago  has  led  men  and  women  from  all 
classes  ever  since,  and  never  more  than  now, 
to  unite  to  protect  and  enhance  the  value  of 
life.  More  and  more  the  forces  of  religion 
and  civilisation  are  uniting  in  such  concerted 
movements  as  the  National  Child  Labour 
Committee,  the  Consumers'  League,  the 
Visiting  Nurses'  Association,  and  many  other 
voluntary  agencies  to  co-operate  with  fac- 
tory inspectors,  truant  officers,  and  juvenile 
courts  in  the  enforcement  of  just  and  humane 
legislation.  Thus  the  sanctions  of  religion 
and  education  upon  the  value  of  a  life  are 
being  translated  in  terms,  economic  and  in- 
dustrial, by  every  protected  piece  of  ma- 
chinery which  keeps  the  fingers  on  the  hand 
and  the  hand  on  the  arm ;  by  all  the  hygienic 
183 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

and  sanitary  conditions  provided  for  in 
shops;  by  all  the  efforts  for  industrial  in- 
surance ;  by  all  the  life-saving  appliances  and 
conditions  on  the  waterways  and  the  rail- 
ways of  the  land ;  and  wherever  safety  is  in 
peril  in  the  working  world. 

The  standard  of  living  affords  another 
common  ground  on  which  religion  and  indus- 
try are  found  to  be  interdependent.  In  rais- 
ing the  standard  of  living  to  be  compatible 
with  the  value  of  life,  both  industry  and  re- 
ligion realise  their  ideal.  By  holding  over 
every  one's  head  the  ideal  of  what  a  human 
life  was  meant  and  made  to  be,  religion  lifts 
the  standards  of  that  life,  creates  a  divine 
discontent  with  anything  less  and  lower,  and 
stirs  men  to  struggle  singly  and  together  to 
maintain  and  advance  a  rising  scale  of  living 
which  comes  to  be  as  dear  as  life  itself.  The 
response  of  industry  to  this  ideal  of  religion 
is  the  demand  for  the  opportunity  to  earn 
such  a  livelihood  as  will  make  the  realisation 
of  that  idea  possible.  The  struggle  of  work- 
184 


INDUSTRY   AND   RELIGION 

ing  people  to  raise  and  maintain  their  stand- 
ard of  living  is  due  to  the  best  that  is  in  them 
and  not  to  the  worst.  "  If  this  is  the  kind  of 
a  man  or  woman  religion  and  education 
teach  me  to  be,"  the  worker  naturally  con- 
cludes, l '  I  should  be  given  the  chance  to  earn 
the  living  of  such  a  man  or  woman. "  Inter- 
preted in  human  terms  "  the  standard  of 
living  "  means  the  rest  which  the  son  of  a 
working  mother  thinks  she  should  have  in 
her  old  age,  the  exemption  which  his  wife 
should  have  from  wage-earning  in  order  to 
mother  his  children,  the  schooling  his  boy  or 
girl  should  get  before  going  out  into  the 
working  world.  The  rising  standards  of 
living  are  due  to  the  ideal  which  religion  has 
taught  us  all  to  have  of  manhood  and  woman- 
hood, fatherhood  and  motherhood,  wifehood 
and  childhood. 

Employers   who  have  too   long   and   too 

widely  united  to  hold  down  and  retard  the  rise 

in  labour's  standard  of  living,  have  more  and 

more  to  their  credit  many  and  varied  unself- 

185 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

ish  efforts  and  achievements  in  lifting  the 
standards  of  labour's  livelihood  and  opening 
to  ever-increasing  multitudes  the  opportunity 
and  means  of  realising  it.  Both  among  em- 
ployers and  employes  the  struggle  to  achieve 
the  rising  standard  of  living  for  the  class 
and  the  mass  should  be  sanctified  by  re- 
ligion. It  should  be  no  small  part  of  our 
personal  and  collective  religious  aim  and 
effort  not  only  to  protect  our  fellow  men  from 
lowering  the  standard  of  their  living  by 
establishing  a  minimum  wage,  but  also  to 
help  them  raise  it,  and  keep  it  rising, 
above  a  mere  living  wage,  as  far  as  the  con- 
ditions of  the  trade  or  craft  will  allow.  Un- 
til we  thus  translate  our  religious  love  of 
souls  into  pur  economic  care  for  selves, 
religion  will  mean  very  little  to  those  who 
are  in  the  struggle  for  life  and  livelihood  in 
an  industrial  age. 

A  third  common  ground  on  which  religion 
and  industry  are  seen  to  be  interdependent 
is  defined  by  the  fact  that  both  have  taught 
186 


INDUSTRY   AND   RELIGION 

men  to  sacrifice  in  order  to  unite  for  the  com- 
mon good.  Have  we  not  been  teaching,  drill- 
ing, disciplining  our  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren— at  home,  at  school,  and  at  church;  by 
their  loyalty  to  family,  party,  patriotism,  and 
faith — to  sacrifice  self  and  stand  together 
for  the  common  good  of  all  or  any  of  them? 
Have  we  not  invested  with  patriotic  and  even 
religious  sanctity  those  who  sacrifice  them- 
selves for  "  their  own  "  folk,  fatherland,  or 
faith!  How  then  do  these  virtues  suddenly 
become  vices,  these  heroes  and  heroines  all 
at  once  become  sordid  conspirators  when 
they  combine,  stake  everything  dear  to  each, 
risk  all,  and  stop  short  of  the  loss  of  nothing, 
in  united  action  to  save  their  own  or 
their  fellow  workers'  standard  of  living? 
They  may  do  so  in  unwise  or  even  unjust 
ways,  but  we  submit  that  what  is  by  common 
consent  considered  wholly  meritorious  in 
every  other  sphere  for  self-sacrifice  cannot 
be  wholly  reprehensible  in  that  of  industrial 
relationship  where  it  is  hardest  and  costliest 
187 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

to  exercise  the  virtues  of  altruism.  What  is 
attributed  to  the  very  best  in  men  elsewhere 
cannot  be  attributed  to  the  very  worst  in  men 
here.  The  * l  union  ' '  of  labourers  cannot  dif- 
fer, per  se,  morally  and  as  an  economic  ne- 
cessity from  a  combination  of  capitalists  or 
the  communion  of  members  of  the  same  re- 
ligious faith.  If,  at  this  age  of  the  world, 
combination  is  necessary  to  success,  where  is 
the  justice  in  forcing  these  competitors  of 
ours  to  do  their  business  with  us  as  though 
they  lived  in  that  former  age  of  the  world 
when  each  one  could  mind  his  own  business 
without  combining  with  others? 

It  looks  then  as  though  the  industrial  world 
has  outgrown  our  moral  sense,  as  though  our 
ethics  are  hopelessly  belated,  for  we  seem  to 
want  to  make  our  profits  under  the  modern 
method  of  combining  all  available  resources, 
while  at  the  same  time  insisting  that  our  fel- 
low workers  shall  deal  with  us  under  the  old 
outworn  and  discarded  system  of  individual 
industry.  That  is,  we  want  others  to  do  unto 
188 


INDUSTRY   AND    RELIGION 

us  as  we  are  not  willing  to  do  unto  them. 
It  looks  as  though  some  of  us  were  being 
tried  and  found  wanting.  Of  "  times  that 
try  men's  souls  "  we  speak  as  though  they 
were  to  be  dreaded  and  yet  belong  to  the 
"  heroic  age,"  but  when  we  look  back  upon 
them  from  safe  distance,  we  are  generally 
forced  to  confess  that  the  "  times  "  were  not 
more  out  of  joint  than  that  the  "  souls  " — 
our  own  or  others' — needed  to  be  tried. 

These  war  times  in  industry  are  indeed  to 
be  dreaded,  but  like  all  great  crises  that  turn 
the  course  of  history  or  personal  experience, 
they  too  are  heroic.  But  the  heroism  should 
not  be  confined  to  the  strikes  and  lockouts  of 
the  irrepressible  conflict.  Industrial  peace 
should  have  its  victories  at  the  hand  of 
religion,  no  less  renowned  than  war.  The 
cross  and  its  sacrifice,  if  they  are  to  mean 
anything  in  this  industrial  age,  must  be 
translated  by  religion  into  terms  of  indus- 
trial conciliation,  intercessorial  mediation 
and  sacrificial  service,  which  will  bring  the 
189 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL  ACTION 

pact  of  Christ 's  own  peace  in  human  brother- 
hood out  of  fratricidal  strife. 

Industry  has  its  cross  as  surely  as  religion. 
There  is  no  other  way  to  the  crown  for  either 
than  the  passion  of  sacrificial  service.  Sac- 
rifice not  only  for  self  but  for  others,  is  the 
only  way  by  which  either  the  strong  or  the 
weak  can  be  crowned  with  that  equality  of 
opportunity  which  is  the  God-given  right  of 
manhood.  Until  industry  takes  up  its  cross 
with  the  self-sacrificing  passion  of  religion, 
neither  labourer  nor  capitalist,  employe  nor 
employer,  can  really  come  into  his  own.  Un- 
less religion  transforms  its  cross  into  terms 
of  economic  value  and  of  industrial  relation- 
ships it  can  never  hold  its  supremacy  over 
human  life  in  an  industrial  age.  Industry 
and  religion  must  unite  if  either  is  to  realise 
its  ideal  or  function  in  human  life.  For  they 
are  interdependent,  and  only  on  the  common 
ground  of  their  community  of  human  inter- 
ests can  they  ever  bring  "  the  new  heavens 
and  the  new  earth  ' '  which  God  has  promised 
to  man  through  them. 
190 


CHAPTER  X 

OKGANISED    INDUSTKY    AND    ORGANISED   KELIGION 

A  New  England  mill  manager  did  some 
thinking  out  loud  in  the  hearing  of  the  writer 
to  this  effect:  "  I  am  manager  of  the  mill 
and  a  member  of  the  Church  in  my  town. 
As  mill  manager  I  have  the  livelihood  and 
workaday  lives  of  over  2,000  men  and  women 
employes  and  their  families  under  my  care 
and  influence.  As  church  member  I  bear  my 
share  of  responsibility  for  the  spiritual  wel- 
fare of  these  and  other  fellow  townsfolk. 
And  yet  the  mill  and  the  Church  have  too  lit- 
tle to  do  with  each  other  to  aid  me  in  fulfill- 
ing my  responsibility  in  each  for  the  other. 
Have  I  not  a  right  to  expect  my  church  to 
help  me  work  for  my  mill  people?  Should 
I  not  be  able  to  make  the  mill  more  help- 
ful to  the  Church  than  by  contributing 
191 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

directly  or  indirectly  toward  its  financial 
support?  " 

Another  loyal  churchman  and  generous 
giver  to  social  and  church  work  for  improv- 
ing living  and  working  conditions  found  him- 
self in  this  dilemma.  The  secretary  of  the 
manufacturers'  association,  to  which  this 
employer  belongs,  attacked  the  social  work- 
ers for  promoting  legislation  protecting  em- 
ployes from  dangerous  machinery  because  ex- 
pensive to  the  manufacturers.  Its  pro- 
moters defended  themselves  and  their  pro- 
posed laws  on  the  ground  that  existing  con- 
ditions subverted  the  aims  and  success  of 
religious  and  social  work.  "  I  find  myself 
paying  two  sets  of  people  to  undo  each 
other's  efforts,  while  the  industrial  and  re- 
ligious interests  with  which  I  am  personally 
identified  are  arrayed  against  each  other. " 

These  are  concrete  statements  of  the  de- 
mand for  the  help,  and  the  protest  against 
the  harm,  which  organised  industry  and  or- 
ganised religion  may  be  to  each  other.  If, 


ORGANISED    INDUSTRY 

then,  industry  and  religion  have  so  much  in 
common  and  are  so  interdependent  in  fulfill- 
ing their  essential  human  functions,  should 
there  not  be  less  antagonism,  or  less  of  a 
sense  of  irrelevancy,  and  more  sympathetic 
co-operation  between  the  organisations  of 
both?  If  so,  what  shall  it  be?  What  may 
religious  and  industrial  organisations  do  for 
and  with  each  other? 

First  of  all  they  may  secure  and  exchange 
information  of  the  actual  conditions  under 
which  work  is  being  done  and  the  workers 
are  living  in  any  locality  or  community.  It 
is  the  business  of  the  churches,  of  employing 
corporations,  and  labour  unions  to  know  just 
what  these  conditions  are.  It  is  to  the  inter- 
est of  each  of  these  organised  interests  to  be 
thus  informed.  Publicity  is  good  public  pol- 
icy. Secretiveness  is  worse  only  than  igno- 
rance of,  or  indifference  to,  the  facts.  Each 
interest  owes  it  to  itself,  and  to  the  other,  to 
know  and  make  known  whatever  is  condition- 
ing life  for  better  or  worse.  If  the  churches 
193 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

ignore  these  facts  they  stultify  their  own 
prayers,  preaching,  aims,  and  hopes.  If  em- 
ploying industries  pay  all  attention  to  the 
material  interests  of  their  plants  and  prod- 
ucts and  none  to  the  human  factors  of  their 
problem,  they  are  bringing  back  upon  them- 
selves disasters  which  their  neglect  or  injus- 
tice has  brought  upon  others.  If  labour  or- 
ganisations heed  not  the  conditions  of  the 
trade  and  market  which  their  employers  are 
facing,  as  well  as  the  working  and  living  con- 
ditions under  which  they  themselves  live  and 
work,  they  are  in  no  position  to  get  or  keep 
their  rights  to  bargain  for  their  members  or 
with  their  employers. 

Labour  organisations  have  been  foremost  in 
calling  public  attention  to  and  demanding 
the  recognition  of  the  conditions  against 
which  their  members  are  struggling.  In- 
deed, they  are  to  be  credited  with  forcing  the 
observation  of  these  facts  both  upon  employ- 
ers and  upon  political  economists.  Had  they 
not  done  so  political  economy  might  have 
194 


ORGANISED    INDUSTRY 

continued  to  be  the  "  dismal  science  "  which 
so  long  faced  practical  conditions  with  ab- 
stract theories;  employers  would  have  reck- 
oned less  with  the  cost  of  living  in  fixing 
wages;  and  legislation  would  have  been 
slower  and  feebler  in  enacting  laws  against 
child  labour,  the  overwork  of  women,  unpro- 
tected dangerous  machinery,  and  occupa- 
tional diseases ;  laws  for  the  minimum  wage, 
industrial  insurance,  and  old  age  pensions. 
Employing  corporations  are  following 
quickly  and  fully  in  studying  conditions  and 
basing  far-reaching  and  effective  policies  for 
preventing  injury,  assuring  safety  or  insur- 
ing against  loss,  furnishing  facilities  and 
comforts,  encouraging  thrift  and  community 
interests,  and  promoting  welfare  and  prog- 
ress. 

These  things  are  and  can  be  attained  by 
industrial  organisations,  seldom  by  indi- 
viduals, however  well  disposed.  Only  or- 
ganised effort  is  adequate  to  produce  them. 
Some  of  them  require  the  united  effort  of 
195 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

employers'  and  employes'  organisations 
working  together  in  effective  co-operation. 
Heavy  have  been  the  losses,  disastrous  the 
delays  due  to  the  refusal  of  employers  and 
employes  to  exchange  their  knowledge  of 
facts.  Complaints  of  the  conditions  existing 
at  the  Chicago  Stock  Yards  were  made  by 
their  employes,  but  were  unheeded  both  by 
the  companies  and  the  public,  years  before 
the  government  investigation  warned  the 
world  against  them  and  inflicted  the  national 
scandal  and  loss.  The  dynamiting  and  vio- 
lence which  have  inflicted  upon  organised 
labour  its  deepest  disgrace  and  damage 
might  have  been  prevented  had  it  not  been 
for  labour's  distrust  of  all  sources  of  infor- 
mation outside  its  own  ranks. 

Is  it  not  possible — yes,  even  probable — that 
if  a  third  party  commanding  public  confi- 
dence were  known  to  be  accurately  informed 
of  living  and  working  conditions,  the  other 
two  parties  directly  at  issue  would  have  less 
occasion  for  distrusting,  misunderstanding, 
196 


ORGANISED    INDUSTRY 

and  fighting  each  other?  Would  not  each  of 
them  fear  an  informed  and  aroused  public 
opinion  more  than  they  do  each  other? 
Would  they  not  be  more  inclined  to  get  to- 
gether by  mutual  concession  than  to  stand 
out  against  each  other  in  the  face  of  the 
facts  thus  firmly  held  between  them  by  those 
friendly  to  both?  Is  this  not  the  function  of 
religion  thus  to  anticipate  and  prevent  in- 
justice and  discontent,  misunderstanding 
and  strife? 

Dramatically  did  the  first  such  survey 
of  industrial  and  social  conditions  make 
its  entrance  upon  the  arena  of  our  contem- 
porary religious  life  and  action.  It  was 
after  the  despairing  East  London  mission- 
aries had  raised  their  "  exceeding  bitter 
cry  "  over  the  conditions  under  which  lives 
were  lost  in  that  great  and  terrible  city  wil- 
derness, that  the  British  Empire  and  the 
civilised  world  were  startled  by  their  little 
pamphlet  bearing  the  arousing  title  The  Bit- 
ter Cry  of  Outcast  London.  Amidst  the 
197 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

many  hysterical  responses  immediately  elic- 
ited by  it,  one  man  went  to  work  like  a  mas- 
ter workman.  He  was  Charles  Booth,  the 
merchantman  shipper  whose  ships  were  car- 
riers of  British  industries  across  many  seas. 
He  alone  set  out  upon  a  voyage  of  discovery 
to  find  the  facts  as  to  the  conditions  of  life 
and  labour  in  London.  As  one  after  another 
of  his  seventeen  volumes  appeared,  during 
the  twenty  years  of  research,  such  move- 
ments as  these  met  the  complex  situation  as 
it  came  to  be  better  understood.  The  social 
settlements  arose.  The  Salvation  Army  was 
marshalled.  The  London  county  and  other 
borough  and  county  councils  developed  their 
reconstruction  work.  Garden  cities  grew. 
Town-planning  evolved  from  the  new  science 
of  cities.  In  great  succession  the  industrial 
acts  of  Parliament  carried  on  and  out  the 
factory  acts  of  the  last  century  and  began  to 
transform  and  supersede  the  poor-laws  of 
nearly  four  hundred  years.  Before  the  bar 
of  public  opinion,  Mr.  Booth  and  other  in- 
198 


ORGANISED    INDUSTRY 

quirers  for  the  facts  of  social  conditions 
were  cited  to  give  the  evidence  upon  which 
parliamentary  elections  turned  and  imperial 
policies  were  determined. 

In  America,  the  Pittsburgh  survey  led  the 
progressive  people  and  agencies  of  that  city 
to  initiate  far-reaching  movements  which  are 
destined  to  improve  the  conditions  of  life  and 
labour.  The  United  States  Steel  Corporation 
instituted  an  inquiry  of  its  own  into  working 
conditions  in  its  plants,  and  its  stock-holders 
endorsed  the  order  to  abolish  the  seven-day 
week  and  the  recommendations  to  reduce  the 
twelve-hour  day  and  to  guard  against  over- 
speeding,  accepting  more  direct  responsi- 
bility for  knowing  and  improving  the  sani- 
tary, economic,  and  social  interests  and  rela- 
tions of  the  employes.  The  local  surveys 
made  for  the  Men  and  Eeligion  Forward 
Movement  have  laid  the  basis  for  the 
churches'  new  interest  in  and  understanding 
of  their  fields;  for  new  enterprise  and  poli- 
cies in  their  work;  for  new  co-operation  be- 
199 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

tween  themselves  and  with  public  and  volun- 
teer agencies. 

Already  the  churches  of  many  localities 
have  found  that  they  could  achieve  together 
what  they  could  not  have  attempted  apart. 
Moreover,  the  federation  of  all  the  churches 
could  fearlessly  face  local  conditions  as  no 
group  of  local  churches  did,  or  perhaps  could, 
do.  The  way  in  which  the  issue  between  the 
steel  workers  and  churches  at  South  Bethle- 
hem, Pa.,  over  Sunday  labour  and  other  mal- 
adjustments was  handled  is  in  evidence. 
The  declaration  of  industrial  faith  and  policy 
by  the  Federal  Council  of  the  United 
Churches  of  Christ  set  a  standard  for  all 
the  churches  such  as  no  single  church  or 
small  group  of  churches  could  have  set  for 
themselves. 

The  churches,  therefore,  can  discover  the 
living  and  working  conditions  of  their  own 
communities  for  themselves  and  others. 
The  more  they  co-operate  in  so  doing  the 
wider,  more  accurate  and  authoritative,  and 
200 


ORGANISED    INDUSTRY 

the  more  practically  useful  will  be  their  sur- 
veys of  conditions  and  their  efforts  to  im- 
prove them. 

The  judicial  impartiality  with  which  these 
facts  must  be  gathered  and  interpreted 
should  also  characterise  the  attitude  of  the 
churches  toward  the  organisations  of  both 
labour  and  capital.  Inconsistent  with  this 
fidelity  to  fact  and  judicial  judgment  is  it 
for  churches  and  ministers  to  ally  them- 
selves with  one  more  than  the  other.  De- 
nominational committees  or  departments 
should  bear  a  title  which  includes  both. 
"  Industrial  "  is  a  better  surname  for  the 
committee  or  department  than  "  labour. " 
"  Fraternal  delegates  "  are  as  much  needed 
by  employers'  associations  as  by  federations 
of  labour.  Ministers,  who  are  not  crafts- 
men, have  no  more  claim  or  right  to  belong 
to  a  labour  union  than  to  a  manufacturers' 
association.  In  either  case  it  is  either  dis- 
ingenuous or  emptily  honorary.  The  Church 
stands  for  all,  if  for  any.  Its  ministry  is 
201 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

mediatorial.  As  such  the  minister  should 
refuse  to  be  classified,  should  be  a  mass-man 
not  a  class-man,  should  stand  in  between, 
and  by  the  fatherhood  of  God  declare  "  All 
ye  are  brethren. " 

Such  intermediary  position  and  attitude 
of  the  churches  allow  of  no  weak,  non-com- 
mittal, timidly  compromising  spirit.  They 
call  for  a  stern  sense  of  justice,  a  squaring 
to  facts,  a  peace-making,  with  emphasis  upon 
the  making.  It  means  insistence  upon  fair 
play,  and  the  free  speech  and  the  full  hearing 
of  the  other  side,  without  which  nothing  is 
fair.  It  sometimes  involves  a  demand  for 
the  impartial  enforcement  of  law,  and  at 
other  times  a  protest  against  the  abuse  of 
the  police  power  to  silence  the  voice  or  crush 
the  rights  of  the  weaker,  poorer  party,  or  the 
one  taken  unawares  or  unprepared. 

To  these  ends  "  free-floor  "  discussions 

are  sometimes  valuable.    When  and  where 

demanded  to  give  voice  to  the  silenced,  to 

assert  and  maintain  the  freedom  of  speech 

202 


ORGANISED    INDUSTRY 

and  the  right  of  public  assembly,  the  Church 
cannot  consistently  deny  the  claim  of  the 
wronged  or  the  weak.  But  there  are  many 
risks  and  more  hard  experiences  involved  in 
assuming  responsibility  for  the  use  and 
abuse  of  this  carte  blanche  bill  of  rights.  If 
each  one's  claim  is  limited  to  three  minutes, 
we  can  all  stand  anything  three  minutes, 
especially  if  the  others  must  endure  the  exer- 
cise of  that  liberty  by  us. 

But  discussions  which  ring  with  reality 
at  first  tend  to  become  spectacular  at  last. 
Fearless,  frank  utterance  of  sincere  convic- 
tion plays  to  the  galleries  after  a  while  in  re- 
sponse to  the  applause  which  it  elicits  from 
others.  It  proves  to  be  as  difficult  to  keep 
all  sides  on  the  floor,  as  to  keep  one  side  from 
monopolising  it.  When  those  who  should  be 
participants  become  spectators;  when  those 
who  should  stand  up  for  their  own  convic- 
tions and  answer  back  those  who  attack  them, 
only  urge  the  loose  talker  to  be  wilder ;  when 
the  worse  such  men  become  the  better  they 
203 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

are  liked  for  the  fun  they  give  the  others, 
then  the  free  floor  becomes  a  circus-ring,  the 
speakers  are  clowns,  and  the  chairman,  how- 
ever sacrificial  his  sincerity  may  be,  becomes 
a  mere  ringmaster.  So  whenever  the  free- 
dom becomes  license,  and  the  floor  becomes  a 
stage,  and  the  speech  becomes  unreal,  stop 
it.  For  it  has  fulfilled  its  purpose  and  is  now 
undoing  the  good  it  has  done.  Good  history 
may  be  poor  policy.  Begin  over  again  with 
a  smaller  group,  all  of  whose  members  seek 
light,  or  plan  to  carry  out  in  action  some 
line  of  talk  that  can  be  translated  into  deed. 

If  what  was  at  first  taken  seriously  comes 
to  be  facetious  and  insincere,  let  it  not  give 
room  to  cynicism.  The  real  struggle  goes 
on,  grim,  hard,  hand  to  hand,  just  beyond 
this  mimicry.  Doubt  not  the  need  of  inter- 
position, human  and  divine. 

Here,  then,  if  anywhere,  is  the  world's  call 

for  the  Church's  religion  of  intercession  and 

vicarious  sacrifice.    If  there  is  a  cross,  here 

is  where  by  its  sign  we  conquer  or  it  is  con- 

204 


ORGANISED    INDUSTRY 

quered.  Is  there  anything  more  subversive 
of  what  religion  is  bound  to  do  for  every 
man,  woman,  and  child,  than  to  allow  the 
worst  passions  to  be  aroused  by  injustice, 
than  to  fail  to  prevent  fratricidal  strife,  than 
to  stand  aside  and  let  organised  industry  be 
organised  warfare! 

Does  this  ministry  of  mediation,  this  at- 
titude of  interposition,  this  intercessorial 
study  of  concrete  situations,  general  condi- 
tions, and  authoritative  facts,  transcend  the 
capacity  of  the  modern  Church?  It  surely 
does  surpass  the  courage  and  faith,  the  influ- 
ence and  resources  of  the  divided  churches. 
But  it  did  not  daunt  the  Church  when  more 
united.  Then  it  interceded  between  warring 
nations  and  races.  Then  it  interposed  its 
truce  between  armies  in  battle  array.  Then 
it  mediated  the  very  "  peace  of  God  "  on 
earth.  Even  now  when  the  divided  churches 
temporarily  unite,  much  more  permanently 
federate,  their  cross  of  self-sacrifice  is  still 
the  sign  by  which  they  conquer.  The  united 
205 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

religious  forces  are  still  adequate  to  meet 
and  master  the  situation  in  almost  every 
community.  But  their  mastery  is  only  that 
of  truth,  no  longer  that  of  asserted  authority. 
It  is  the  mastery  of  authoritative  facts,  pa- 
tiently, practically,  intelligently  applied  to 
concrete  situations  that  wins  religion's  way. 
New  bases  are  being  laid,  new  fulcrums 
are  being  fixed  for  the  levers  of  religion 's  old 
power,  in  the  surveys,  the  parish  policies  and 
the  federated  efforts  which  the  churches  are 
making  on  their  local  fields  and  within  the 
denominational  and  national  spheres  of  ac- 
tion. In  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of 
laws  the  churches  should  take  their  full,  large 
share  with  and  through  the  National  Child 
Labour  Committee,  the  national  and  local 
Consumers'  Leagues,  the  Association  for 
Labour  Legislation,  and  the  Woman's  Trade 
Union  League.  Collectively  by  parish,  de- 
nomination, and  inter-denominational  agita- 
tion and  education  they  can  watch  or  initiate, 
influence  and  help  enact  laws  for  protecting 
206 


ORGANISED    INDUSTRY 

and  promoting  the  interests  of  working  men, 
women  and  children.  They  can,  without  be- 
ing partial  to  mere  class  interests,  unite  with 
employers  or  with  organised  labour,  either 
or  both,  in  securing  legislation  clearly  de- 
manded by  public  welfare.  How  well  worth 
while  it  is  to  promote  and  join  in  such  co- 
operative efforts  was  strikingly  demonstrated 
in  the  success  of  four  Illinois  commis- 
sions. 

Fire  protection  of  mines  from  any  recur- 
rence of  the  Cherry  mine  conflagration  and 
the  revision  of  the  mining  laws  of  Illinois 
were  accomplished  by  miners,  operators,  and 
three  representatives  of  the  public,  without 
opposition  from  the  legislature  and  without 
hindrance  from  a  large  strike  in  the  industry. 
The  law  to  prevent  occupational  diseases 
was  formulated  and  passed  in  the  same  way. 
Labour's  representatives  on  the  employers' 
liability  commission  proposed  this  toast  to 
the  principal  employer  serving  on  the  com- 
mission : 

207 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

"  Here  is  to  Charles  Piez!  One  of  the  best  fel- 
lows of  our  long  remembrance ;  one  of  the  finest  of 
Chicago's  citizens;  one  of  the  most  unselfish  of 
Illinois  captains  of  industry ;  whose  good  fellowship 
has  been  our  good  fortune  and  pleasure;  whose 
sterling  citizenship  has  been  our  inspiration ;  whose 
unselfish,  public-spirited  service  has  been  the  glory 
of  a,  worthy  life.  All  hail,  Charles  Piez!  " 

At  the  final  session  of  the  Illinois  Indus- 
trial Commission  for  protection  from  dan- 
gerous machinery,  the  labour  members  sur- 
prised the  others  by  presenting  a  little  sou- 
venir with  these  generous  sentiments : 

11  We  believe  that  the  spirit  of  fairness  mani- 
fested by  the  members  of  the  commission  repre- 
senting the  employers  emphasises  greatly  the  value 
of  conference  and  a  discussion  of  our  problems  to 
the  end  that  we  may  find  the  common  ground  upon 
which  both  sides  may  stand  without  sacrifice  of 
either  principle  or  self-respect." 

Appreciative   of   "  those  unselfish  repre- 
sentatives  of  the  great  third  interest — the 
public,"  the  working  men  added  this  tribute: 
208 


ORGANISED    INDUSTRY 

"  Under  less  favourable  circumstances  the  duty 
imposed  on  this  section  of  the  commission  would 
have  been  to  hold  the  balance  of  power,  to  act  as 
mediators  in  an  effort  toward  harmony.  In  the 
presence  of  such  able  men  much  of  this  spirit  of 
mutual  confidence  was  born — because  in  the  pres- 
ence of  such  gentlemen  the  evil  spirits  of  sharp 
practice,  undue  influence  or  mutual  distrust  would 
have  fled  abashed. " 

Was  not  this  a  coming  of  "  the  kingdom 
of  righteousness,  peace  and  joy  in  the  holy 
spirit ' '  1  Would  it  not  have  been  the  func- 
tion and  glory  of  the  churches  to  have 
prompted  and  promoted  such  a  translation 
of  the  faith  and  hope  of  the  Gospel  into  the 
deeds  of  men  and  the  act  of  legislature? 
Could  anything  but  the  joint  influence  of  or- 
ganised industry  and  organised  religion  have 
brought  about  such  a  triumph  of  the  spirit  of 
God? 

Let  the  churches  organise  within  their  de- 
nominations to  educate  their  own  fellowship. 
Let  the  Social  Service  Commission  of  the 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of  Christ  in 
America  organise,  represent,  and  express 
their  interdenominational  attitude  and  ac- 
tion. Then  in  the  still  larger  fellowship  em- 
bracing the  Jewish  and  Eoman  Catholic 
faiths,  there  will  be  the  organised  religion  to 
co-operate  with  the  organised  industry  of 
the  American  people  for  the  peace  and  prog- 
ress of  our  great  democracy  and  for  the  com- 
ing of  the  "  kingdom  of  the  Father." 


CHAPTER  XI 

CITY  AND  CHURCH  RE-APPROACHING  EACH 
OTHER 

THE  city  and  the  Church  have  not  always 
been  friends,  but  they  have  never  been 
strangers.  The  Church  was  born  in  the  city. 
It  was  christened  with  the  very  name  of 
"  town-meeting. "  Its  membership  was  so 
identified  with  citizenship  that  those  beyond 
the  Church's  pale  were  called  "  pagans, "  the 
Latin  term  for  countrymen.  Its  organisa- 
tion conformed  more  to  the  type  of  the  cities 
out  of  whose  soil  it  grew  than  to  that  of 
either  temple  or  synagogue.  Next  to  the 
terms  of  family  relationship,  those  of  po- 
litical and  civic  significance  were  used  by  its 
founders  to  describe  how  its  members  were 
related  to  each  other,  and  the  function  it 
was  founded  to  fulfil.  It  was  a  "  common- 
ail 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

wealth,"  a  "  kingdom,"  a  "  holy  city,"  the 
"  city  of  God,"  the  "  new  Jerusalem." 

This  identification  of  the  Church  with  the 
city  is  the  most  astonishing  vision  of  the 
seers  of  Scripture.  It  must  have  seemed  a 
wilder  flight  of  the  imagination  to  the  con- 
temporaries of  the  prophets  and  the  apostles 
than  it  does  to  us.  Yet  notwithstanding  Je- 
rusalem which  stoned  the  prophets,  Corinth 
which  corrupted  the  Church,  Athens  which 
ignored  Paul,  and  Rome  which  persecuted 
the  saints,  the  last  of  the  apostles  so  iden- 
tified the  city  with  the  Church,  in  the 
final  glimpse  he  caught  of  the  triumph 
of  the  Christian  faith,  that  he  even  lost 
sight  of  the  temple  when  he  saw  "  the 
city." 

Aggressions  upon  each  other's  rights  and 
functions  have  often  made  Church  and  city 
enemies.  And  when  one  was  not  dominated 
by  the  other,  they  maintained  an  armed 
truce.  Nevertheless,  even  when  fleeing  from 
that  domination,  our  Pilgrim  forefathers 


CITY   AND   CHURCH 

brought  city  and  Church  to  a  pact  of  peace, 
which  has  never  yet  been  broken,  either  by 
law  or  war,  in  the  new  world.  At  the  centre 
of  every  one  of  their  New  England  towns 
they  planted  their  "  centre  "  church  and  the 
"  town-meeting, " — those  units  of  the  most 
absolute  spiritual  and  political  democracy 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  The  Church  was 
the  religious  fellowship  of  the  citizens.  The 
"  town-meeting  "  was  the  civic  fellowship 
of  the  Church  members.  Ships  were  not 
more  necessary  to  bring  the  discoverers  and 
colonists  to  the  new  world  than  were  these 
"  centres  "  for  political  and  spiritual  fel- 
lowship and  action  essential  to  hold  them 
together.  So  interdependent  were  they  that 
they  grew  up  together  like  the  intertwining 
vines,  representing  the  three  pioneer 
churches,  or  the  three  towns  they  estab- 
lished in  Connecticut,  on  the  great  seal  of 
that  state.  Whether  the  churches  twine 
around  the  towns,  or  the  towns  around 
the  churches,  is  left  to  each  citizen  to 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

imagine,  now  one  way  and  then  perhaps  the 
other,  as  changing  circumstances  or  moods 
incline. 

But  even  in  New  England,  town  and 
Church  soon  began  to  lose  the  bond  "between 
their  two  interdependent  sources  of  the  peo- 
ple 's  liberty  and  power.  Always  afraid  even 
to  approach  the  blunder  of  the  organic  unity 
between  the  Church  and  state,  from  which 
their  fathers  had  fled  in  terror,  the  people 
soon  began  to  separate  them  in  fact  as  in 
form.  As  the  population  scattered  and  grew 
diversified,  the  colonists  could  not  longer 
unite  at  any  single  spiritual  centre.  Party 
spirit  also  broke  up  the  unity  of  the  "  town- 
meeting.  "  And  so  Church  and  town,  though 
never  hostile,  became  so  distinct  and  separate 
with  the  years  as  to  be  far  less  helpful  to  each 
other  than  they  need  to  be,  if  they  fulfil  their 
highest  function  in  the  people's  life.  Never, 
and  nowhere  as  in  America,  have  the  Church 
and  the  town  had  less  to  do  with  each 
other.  Their  organic  separation  grew  into 


CITY  AND   CHURCH 

a  sense  of  detachment,  if  not  into  a  decree 
of  divorce,  almost  equally  demoralising  to 
each. 

Meanwhile  the  urban  age  was  dawning. 
The  municipalised  man  was  taking  the  field 
of  action.  The  city-state  once  more  became 
ascendant. 

De  Tocqueville  registered  a  way-mark  by 
which  we  may  measure  how  rapidly  and  rad- 
ically the  change  in  our  population  has  taken 
place.  Writing  in  1830  when  New  York 
numbered  only  202,000  citizens,  our  friendly 
critic  prophesied : 

"  I  look  upon  the  size  of  certain  American  cities, 
and  especially  upon  the  nature  of  their  population 
as  a  real  danger  which  threatens  the  future  security 
of  the  democratic  republic  of  the  new  world.  And 
I  venture  to  predict  that  they  will  perish  from  this 
circumstance  unless  the  government  succeeds  in 
creating  an  armed  force  which,  while  it  remains 
under  the  control  of  the  majority  of  the  nation, 
will  be  independent  of  the  town  population  and 
able  to  repress  its  excess/' 
215 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

But  the  reason  for  this  reassurance  sounds 
more  strangely  than  his  dark  prophecy. 
For  he  asserts : 

"  The  country  is  no  wise  alarmed  by  them,  be- 
cause the  population  of  the  cities  has  hitherto  ex- 
ercised neither  power  nor  influence  over  the  rural 
districts. " 

Yet  now,  in  less  than  one  hundred  years  since 
that  fact  could  be  recorded,  the  urban  type  of 
life,  the  city  standards  of  living  and  condi- 
tions of  labour  are  superseding  rural  cus- 
toms, manners  and  methods  and  transform- 
ing the  countryside  into  a  vast  suburb  whose 
populations  share  every  year  more  and  more 
of  the  facilities  and  advantages,  not  to  say 
the  perils,  of  city  life.  "  The  twentieth  cen- 
tury opens  with  two  distinguishing  fea- 
tures," Frederick  C.  Howe  affirms,  "  the 
dominant  city  and  a  militant  democracy." 
Closing  his  luminous  volume  on  The  City  the 
Hope  of  Democracy  with  this  portentous 
statement,  he  opens  it  with  the  assertion, 


CITY   AND    CHURCH 

which  has  only  just  begun  to  startle  us  out 
of  our  security,  that  "  the  distrust  of  the 
democracy  "las  long  dominated  our  municipal 
law  and  literature. " 

Two  other  facts,  however,  become  more 
impressive  with  each  current  year:  The 
fact  that  both  city  and  Church  are  learning 
that  neither  succeeds  if  the  other  fails,  and 
the  fact  that  they  are  moving  toward  each 
other.  The  city  fails,  and,  failing,  defeats 
the  Church  if  without  religious  reverence 
and  passion  to  serve  the  people.  And  the 
Church  fails  to  accomplish  its  full  mission 
without  the  inspiration  of  working  for  civic 
ideals,  and  without  the  co-operation  of  the 
body  politic. 

That  Church  and  city  are  moving  toward 
each  other  is  equally  obvious.  This  reborn 
civic  spirit  is  not  only  raising  political  and 
administrative  standards  toward  higher 
ideals  of  integrity  and  efficiency,  but  is  also 
extending  the  function  of  the  city,  town, 
county,  and  rural  community  further  and  fur- 
217 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

ther  into  the  field  once  claimed  and  exclu- 
sively possessed  by  the  Church.  This  tend- 
ency of  the  body  politic  to  assume  and  exer- 
cise prerogatives  hitherto  claimed  and  ful- 
filled solely  by  the  Church  raises  grave  ques- 
tions. What  does  it  mean  that  the  state  is 
more  and  more,  and  the  Church  is  less  and 
less  the  educator  of  the  people,  the  adminis- 
trator of  alms  to  the  poor,  the  protector  of 
the  orphan  and  the  widow,  the  healer  of  the 
sick,  the  maker  of  peace,  the  dispenser  of 
justice,  and  the  great  frame-work  within 
which  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being? 
How  does  it  come  to  pass  that  the  state  and 
not  the  Church  is  the  great  builder?  What 
does  it  mean  that  the  greatest  structures  are 
no  longer  cathedrals  and  churches,  but 
courts  of  justice,  state  capitols,  city  halls, 
marts  of  trade?  The  really  great  buildings 
which  have  weathered  the  centuries  and 
stand  as  the  great  memorials  to  the  past 
were  built  by  the  Church.  Why  do  the  peo- 
ple more  and  more  organise  and  operate 


CITY  AND   CHURCH 

their  educational,  charitable,  reformatory, 
and  fraternal  co-operation  through  the  town, 
the  city,  the  state,  and  the  nation,  and  not 
through  the  Church  only,  as  they  used  to? 
Does  this  mean  that  the  Church  is  losing 
its  function,  that  it  is  being  superseded  by 
the  state  and  is  passing  away?  Neither  the 
story  of  our  past,  nor  the  demands  of  the 
present  allow  any  such  conclusion.  History 
will  never  let  us  forget  very  long  that  the 
churches  were  once  the  only  courts  of  justice, 
asylums,  and  hospitals  which  the  people  had. 
Their  strong  oak  doors  swung  wide  to  re- 
ceive those  fleeing  for  life  from  the  pursuer 
or  the  avenger,  those  who  laid  hold  upon 
"  the  horns  of  the  altar  "  as  their  only  hope. 
The  silent  walls  of  the  cathedral  became  a 
refuge  for  the  oppressed.  Eloquent  with 
stories  of  tragedy  and  interposition,  of  the 
battle -clash  without  and  strange  serenity 
within,  are  the  low-browed,  age-worn,  time- 
scarred  portals  through  the  ancient  walls  of 
what  were  half  fortress  and  half  sanctuary. 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

Ancient  baptistries  still  stand  to  give  archi- 
tectural emphasis  to  the  central  place  given 
to  the  little  child  in  the  heart  and  the  concern 
of  religion  ages  before  schools  were  dreamed 
of  for  the  children  of  the  people.  The  alms 
disbursed,  more  generously  than  wisely,  with 
more  charity  than  justice,  at  the  doors  of  the 
synagogue  and  the  church,  far  and  away 
led  all  of  the  sentiment  and  action  which 
evolved  the  modern  shelter  and  provision  for 
the  poor,  public  or  private.  Labour  ex- 
changes and  other  forms  of  co-operation  be- 
tween the  strong  and  the  weak,  to  promote 
equality  of  opportunity,  were  first  sheltered 
under  cathedral  arches  and  centred  about 
parish  households  of  faith.  The  very  craft- 
guilds  had  religious  origin,  organisation,  and 
mysteries.  The  care  of  the  sick,  invalid,  or- 
phans, and  aged  was  nobly  assumed  by 
religious  communities  long  before  it  was 
recognised  to  be  the  responsibility  of  the 
body  politic  and  the  obligation  of  the  tax- 
payer. The  canon  law  of  the  Church  was  an 


CITY  AND   CHURCH 

established  and  elaborate  system  of  legal 
procedure  when  and  where  there  was  no 
jurisprudence  which  could  claim  to  be  either 
common  practice  or  a  body  of  law.  The  tow- 
ering walls  and  far-flung  roofs  of  the  mediae- 
val temples  were  built  by  the  people  and  for 
the  people.  They  were  the  people's  place, 
the  people's  palace. 

Do  these  facts  not  show  that  the  civic 
forms  which  religion  now  takes  on  are 
founded  upon  and  have  grown  up  out  of  the 
old  faith  of  the  synagogue  and  the  old  gospel 
of  the  Church?  Are  they  not  evidences  that 
religion  was  never  more  irrepressible  than 
now;  now  that  it  cannot  contain  itself,  or  be 
contained,  within  church  walls,  within  the 
limits  of  creeds,  within  the  rituals  of  wor- 
ship, within  ecclesiastical  control;  now  that 
it  is  out  in  the  open,  under  the  stars  of  all 
heavens,  among  the  trees  and  the  rocks  of 
God's  green  earth;  now  that  it  has  leavened, 
the  common  life  of  the  very  race?  Have  not 
the  churches  been  building  better  than  they 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

knew  to  have  built  so  many  of  their  ideals, 
their  impulses,  their  methods  of  human  serv- 
ice, their  prophecies  of  the  city  of  God  into 
the  facts  and  functions,  the  laws  and  policies, 
the  better  present  and  the  brighter  prospects 
of  our  towns  and  cities,  our  counties  and 
states,  our  communities  and  nation,  our  in- 
ternational courts  and  our  federations  of 
peace? 

Not  only  by  the  much  that  has  been  done, 
but  by  the  more  that  is  now  demanded,  both 
city  and  Church  lay  claim  to  each  other  as 
never  before.  If  politics  are  to  be  more  and 
more  a  direct  democracy,  then  patriotism 
must  depend  for  its  unselfishness  and  for  its 
service  of  others  upon  the  good-will  of  the 
individual  which  it  is  the  function  of  religion 
to  beget,  and  of  the  Church  to  nurture. 
Whence,  if  not  from  worship, — the  worship 
of  what  is  best  for  each  and  all, — is  the  com- 
munity to  evolve  its  ideals  of  the  individual 
and  the  collective  life?  How  else  than  by 
the  dependence  of  faith  and  the  aspiration  of 


CITY   AND    CHURCH 

prayer  may  the  body  of  citizenship  recog- 
nise the  fact  that  power  to  realise  civic  ideals 
is  spiritual  and  not  material,  is  a  force  from 
within  and  above,  and  not  resident  in  mere 
organisation  or  laws?  Upon  what  can  the 
state  depend  to  generate  the  power  of  the 
self-emptied,  self-sacrificing  life, — the  only 
power  for  progress? 

If  religion  is  to  realise  its  ideal  and  fulfil 
its  function, — not  only  in  the  life  of  the  one, 
but  also  in  the  relations  and  destiny  of  the 
many,  not  only  in  personal  piety,  but  also  in 
public  policy,  not  only  in  saved  souls,  but 
also  in  the  saved  world, — then  the  Church  by 
itself  alone  is  not  sufficient  to  fulfil  the  func- 
tion of  religion  and  realise  its  ideal  in  human 
life.  Indeed  as  human  lives  become  more 
interdependent  upon  each  other,  and  there- 
fore more  dependent  upon  the  antecedents 
and  surroundings,  upon  the  conditions  and 
laws,  upon  the  frame-work  of  the  organised 
community  for  which  others  are  responsible, 
the  Church  is  less  and  less  able  to  save  even 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

the  individual  life  through  its  own  organised 
agencies  only  and  without  the  co-operation 
of  the  local  community  and  the  larger  state 
in  the  work  of  human  redemption.  Much 
more  must  it  have  what  only  the  whole  com- 
munity, with  all  its  resources,  and  the  full 
force  of  its  highest  laws  and  best  adminis- 
tration can  furnish,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  so- 
cial ideal  and  tho  social  function  of  religion, 
to  which  it  is  committed  by  the  prophecy  of 
the  seers  and  the  "  great  commission  "  of 
the  Church.  The  state  is  not  more  commit- 
ted to  the  humanising  of  religion  than  the 
Church  to  the  spiritualising  and  sanctifying 
of  the  state. 

Only  by  the  religious  passion  in  politics 
and  the  passion  of  patriotism  in  religion  can 
the  mighty  task  of  readjusting  the  Church 
and  the  state  to  each  other  be  undertaken  or 
fulfilled.  They  must  be  aligned  first  in  the 
individual  lives  of  those  who  are  citizens  be- 
cause they  are  churchmen  and  churchmen  be- 
cause they  are  citizens;  those  whose  religion 


CITY   AND    CHURCH 

insists  upon  expressing  itself  in  the  political 
and  civic  terms  of  real  life;  those  to  whom 
the  Church  is  an  institution  whose  highest 
mission  is  to  build  the  community  up  out  of 
itself,  not  itself  out  of  the  community;  those 
who  cannot  and  will  not  abide  a  community 
of  Christians  which  is  not  a  Christian  com- 
munity. And  the  words  hold  if  we  substi- 
tute Jewish  for  Christian. 

In  The  Stones  of  Venice  Buskin  thus  de- 
ciphers for  us  what  becomes  of  a  community 
of  such  Christians  and  of  so-called  Chris- 
tians in  such  a  community: 

"  The  most  curious  phenomenon  in  all  Venetian 
history  is  the  vitality  of  religion  in  private  life 
and  its  deadness  in  public  policy.  The  habit  of 
assigning  to  religion  a  direct  influence  over  all 
his  own  actions  and  all  the  affairs  of  his  own  daily 
life,  is  remarkable  in  every  great  Venetian  during 
the  times  of  the  prosperity  of  the  state;  nor  are 
instances  wanting  in  which  the  private  feeling  of 
the  citizens  reaches  the  sphere  of  their  policy,  and 
even  becomes  the  guide  of  its  course  where  the 
225 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

scales  of  expediency  are  doubtfully  balanced.  .  .  . 
But  the  heart  of  Venice  is  shown  only  in  her 
hastiest  councils;  her  worldly  spirit  recovers  the 
ascendency  whenever  she  has  time  to  calculate  the 
probabilities  of  advantage,  or  when  they  are  suffi- 
ciently distinct  to  need  no  calculation;  and  the 
entire  subjection  of  private  piety  to  national  policy 
is  remarkable  throughout  the  almost  endless  series 
of  treacheries  and  tyrannies  by  which  her  empire 
was  enlarged.'  .  .  .  The  evidence  from  the  arts 
of  Venice  will  be  both  frequent  and  irrefragable, 
that  the  decline  of  her  political  prosperity  was 
exactly  coincident  with  that  of  domestic  and  in- 
dividual religion." 

Such  duplicity  in  morals  and  hypocrisy  in 
religion  are  happily  less  and  less  self -decep- 
tive. The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  nei- 
ther a  church  member  nor  a  citizen  will  be 
thought  "  good  "  if  his  citizenship  is  not 
really  as  good  as  church  membership  certi- 
fies manhood  and  womanhood  to  be.  The 
home  which  a  family  has  will  be  less  a  crite- 
rion of  its  character  than  the  tenement  house 
226 


CITY   AND    CHURCH 

in  which  in  the  same  town  the  families  of  the 
poor  live.  A  citizen  will  not  pass  as  law- 
abiding,  unless  he  stands  for  equality  for  all 
before  the  law.  Personal  virtue  will  be 
measured  by  the  effectiveness  with  which  it 
promotes  public  virtue.  The  character  of  a 
town  will  be  judged  not  only  by  the  personal 
virtues  of  its  people,  but  by  their  standards 
of  its  public  life  and  social  conditions  for 
which  they  are  responsible.  The  efficiency  of 
the  Church  will  be  tested  by  the  extent  to 
which  social  conditions  and  town  government 
make  it  easier  to  be  good  and  harder  to  be 
bad.  The  claim  of  being  a  community  of 
Christians  will  not  be  conceded  to  those  who 
do  not  constitute  a  Christian  community. 


227 


CHAPTER  XII 

CHURCH    AND    COMMUNITY — THEIR    INTERRELA- 
TION AND  COMMON  AIM 

COMMON  words,  such  as  "  community  "  and 
"  communion,"  lose  much  of  their  signifi- 
cance in  being  specialised.  The  institutions 
which  exclusively  appropriate  their  special 
usage  thereby  lose  the  vital  meaning  and 
force  which  their  common  use  carries.  On 
the  other  hand,  this  specialised  significance 
of  common  terms  may  give  an  added  and 
higher  meaning  to  the  ordinary  things  of  life 
which  they  usually  designate. 

All  human  interests  need  nothing  so  much 
as  to  have  the  ordinary  things  of  life  invested 
with  extraordinary  importance,  common  ex- 
periences with  special  interest,  the  natural 
relationships  with  exceptional  significance, 
routine  with  zest,  the  most  human  with  the 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

divine st  meaning.  It  is  the  genius  of  re- 
ligion to  do  just  this  thing.  The  state  also 
dignifies  and  enhances  the  lesser  things  of 
individual  life  by  massing  them  together  into 
great  public  interests  and  by  raising  them 
out  of  mere  personal  concern  up  to  the  plane 
of  public  policy  and  national  significance. 
While  both  the  Church  and  the  state  do  this 
thing  for  the  common  life,  yet  each  of  them 
needs  the  common  life  to  do  it  for  them. 

For,  by  special  and  exclusive  religious 
usage,  the  terms  of  common  life  do  lose  sig- 
nificance. "  Righteousness  "  thus  became 
an  abstraction,  something  unreal,  fictitious, 
apart  from  personal  experience,  when  it  lost 
the  simple  sense  of  "  right  "  with  which  it 
is  always  invested  in  common  use.  Its  re- 
ligious value  therefore  can  be  kept  vital  only 
by  keeping^  it  in  constant  connection  with  the 
common  use  of  the  term  which  describes 
right  relations  between  man  and  man.  And 
yet  the  religious  emphasis  upon  the  necessity 
of  right  relations  with  God  furnishes  the 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL  ACTION 

standards  and  the  power  to  realise  those  be- 
tween man  and  man.  So,  also,  the  political 
use  of  common  terms  empties  them  of  mean- 
ing. For  instance,  "  the  city  "  in  the  par- 
lance of  the  politician,  the  job-giver  and 
seeker,  and  the  caucus  regulars,  stands  only 
for  what  they,  one  and  all,  can  get  out  of  the 
body  politic  for  themselves,  their  faction,  or 
their  party.  It  is  thus  emptied  of  all  those 
human  values,  which  are  even  ignored  by 
multitudes  of  the  very  people  who  thereby 
permit  their  most  personal  interests  to  be 
bartered  away  and  lost.  Political  usage 
needs  to  have  put  back  into  it  the  common 
human  sense  of  the  city,  the  town,  the  county, 
the  village,  as  a  group  of  human  beings,  as 
families  of  men,  women,  and  children,  with 
all  their  experiences  of  loss  and  gain,  pain 
and  pleasure,  death  and  life.  What  is  this 
but  religion's  "  city  of  God  "! 

From  this  point  of  view  we  may  best  ap- 
proach our  inquiry  as  to  what  the  Church 
and  the  local  community  have  to  do  with  and 
230 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

for  each  other.  In  both  the  ordinary  and 
special  use  of  these  terms,  "  community  " 
and  "  communion, "  there  is  more  of  spirit 
than  of  form.  Each  breathes  the  sharing 
spirit.  Both  express,  within  different 
spheres  or  relationships  of  life,  the  having-in- 
common  and  the  sharing-in-common.  This 
idea  lies  at  the  one  tap-root,  from  which 
both  of  these  terms  derive  their  origin. 
And  each  of  them  carries  the  likeness 
of  their  common  family  lineage  into  the 
spheres  of  religious  and  political  action. 
In  the  Church's  "  communion, "  the  fact  and 
idea  of  fellowship  were  felt  long  before 
the  term  was  connected  with  a  sacramental 
rite,  or  with  the  membership  of  an  organisa- 
tion, in  which  senses  the  term  is  almost  ex- 
clusively used  within  certain  circles.  So  also 
in  the  local  "  community, "  as  it  is  regarded 
by  its  members,  there  is  still  more  of  the  fact 
and  idea  of  a  community  of  interests  than 
of  any  organised  agency  of  government  or 
of  party. 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

Back  of  and  above  all  our  modern  forms 
and  ideas  of  local  government,  especially 
city  government,  lies  the  primitive  concep- 
tion of  the  ' '  ancient  city  ' '  in  its  original  use, 
descriptive  of  the  earliest  experiences  of  the 
race.  The  "  city  "  was  not  any  kind  of  an 
organisation,  political  or  administrative.  It 
was  not  even  a  locality,  or  a  collection  of 
streets  and  houses.  It  was  a  federation  of 
tribes  or  families.  Two  of  them  met  in  the 
wilderness  of  their  wanderings.  Finding 
more  to  unite  than  to  divide  them,  they  thus 
entered  into  a  pact  of  peace.  They  built  an 
altar  of  stones.  They  dug  a  little  trench 
about  it.  They  encircled  both  with  a  light 
fire  of  brush.  Then  representatives  of  each 
tribe  or  household  ran  through  the  fire  to 
show  that  everything  that  could  divide  them 
was  consumed,  and  they  filled  the  trench  with 
handfuls  of  earth  from  native  soils  to  show 
that  every  cleavage  that  could  separate  them 
was  filled  up.  At  the  altar,  thus  doubly  sanc- 
tified and  safeguarded,  they  offered  a  sacri- 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

fice  to  the  gods,  who  were  considered  mem- 
bers of  the  tribes.  And  thus  they  founded 
their  "  city  "  as  a  federation  of  families. 
Around  that  altar  grew  the  citadel,  about 
which  the  aged,  the  weak,  and  the  young  with 
their  protectors,  gradually  came  to  linger, 
while  the  many  and  the  strong  moved  on  to 
pasture  their  herds  and  flocks,  but  to  return 
now  and  again  when  the  moon  marked  the 
time  for  reunion. 

Here,  then,  at  the  heart  of  the  home,  the 
village  or  city  community,  as  well  as  the 
synagogue  and  the  church,  had  their  com- 
mon origin.  For  the  synagogue  was  more 
like  a  household  than  like  the  ancient  temple, 
and  the  earliest  church  was  the  "  church  in 
the  house, "  with  households  for  its  member- 
ship. However  necessary  the  organisation 
of  the  Church  and  the  state  may  have  been, 
whatever  agencies  the  polity  of  the  one  and 
the  politics  of  the  other  may  take  on,  it  is 
still  necessary  to  go  back  to  the  idea  of  a 
federation  of  families  in  order  to  define 


RELIGION    IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

what  both  church  and  local  government  are 
for,  and  how  to  make  the  organisation  and 
agencies  of  each  fulfil  its  purpose.  Local 
government  is  an  extension  of  housekeeping. 
The  local  church  should  be  the  source  of 
power,  and  the  very  breath  of  life,  for  home- 
building.  The  officials  of  each  fulfil  their 
highest  functions  in  aiding  and  supplement- 
ing the  priesthood  and  kingship  of  the  par- 
ents. The  sacraments  of  the  Passover  and 
Holy  Communion  could  find  no  symbol  more 
sacred  than  the  family  supper,  no  service 
more  holy  than  to  pervade  the  household  of 
faith  with  the  family  feeling.  The  city  could 
discover  no  more  dignified  title  for  its  gov- 
erning officials  than  "  aldermen,"  and  the 
church  than  "  elders,"  that  is  "  city 
fathers  "  and  "  fathers  of  the  faithful  "  or 
"  elder  brethren."  So  we  may  take  the 
homelike  ;church  and  the  family-like  com- 
munity to  be  both  the  formative  ideals  and 
the  constructive  forces  of  religion  and  poli- 
tics alike. 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

The  function  of  the  Church  in  the  political 
sphere  as  in  that  of  the  family,  the  neigh- 
bourhood, and  industry,  is  threefold ;  to  have 
and  give  a  formative  ideal  of  what  the  com- 
munity is  to  be  and  do;  to  initiate,  inspire, 
and  support  movements  and  agencies  for  the 
realisation  of  civic  ideals;  and  to  generate 
and  apply  the  power  of  a  self-sacrificing 
public  spirit,  which  is  the  only  force  ade- 
quate to  promote  social  progress. 

To  reveal  the  idealism  of  religion  has 
always  been  the  unique  prerogative  and  dis- 
tinctive service  of  the  Church  in  human  life 
and  society.  Art  and  literature  have  shared 
this  function,  but  the  Church  has  brought 
ideals  far  more  directly  to  bear  upon  many 
more  people  and  kinds  of  people.  It  has 
used  art  and  letters  more  effectively  to  this 
end  than  they  have  been  put  to  use  apart 
from  religion. 

It  is  not  true,  as  is  so  often  asserted,  that 
the  Church  has  had  an  ideal  only  for  the  in- 
dividual, not  for  society.  It  has  always  had 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

a  golden  age,  a  millennium,  and  beyond  it  a 
heaven,  to  hold  up  as  its  social  ideal  for  the 
world.  But  it  has  almost  always  reserved 
these  social  ideals  for  "  the  last  days,"  and 
taught  them  as  a  part  of  its  ' l  eschatology, ' ' 
— its  teaching  about  last  things;  as  its 
"  apocalypse, " — its  vision  of  the  end.  In- 
deed some  schools  of  its  teachings  have  for- 
bidden any  hope  of  a  social  ideal,  or  even  of 
human  progress,  by  putting  all  hope  beyond 
the  earthly  end  and  allowing  for  a  progress 
only  from  worse  to  worse,  until  the  final 
catastrophe  annihilates  the  present  order  for 
the  better  one  which  is  to  take  its  place. 

Spasmodically,  now  and  then,  here  and 
there,  through  the  Christian  centuries,  lead- 
ers and  groups,  filled  with  the  Pentecostal 
spirit,  have  attempted  to  realise  in  life  or 
literature  the  ideal  of  a  Christian  community, 
which  began  to  be  achieved  at  Pentecost.  St. 
John,  as  the  last  of  the  apostles,  saw  it  from 
afar  to  be  "  the  new  Jerusalem."  Augus- 
tine, greatest  of  the  fathers,  reconstructed 
236 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

it  in  his  City  of  God.  Sir  Thomas  More 
dreamed  it  in  his  Utopia.  Constantine  and 
the  imperial  popes  attempted  it  in  the  Holy 
Eoman  Empire.  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  child 
of  the  earth  and  sky,  reunited  nature  and 
spirit,  the  human  and  the  divine,  in  the  one 
realm  of  his  love  and  life.  Savonarola  gave 
his  life  to  make  over  Florence  after  the  pat- 
tern of  the  heavenly  city.  John  Calvin  ruled 
Geneva  in  the  fear  of  God.  Oliver  Cromwell 
established  the  commonwealth  of  the  Cove- 
nanters. John  Knox  struggled  to  make 
Scotland  a  regenerate  land.  Our  Pilgrim 
Fathers  established  commonwealths  governed 
by  church  members.  Joseph  Mazzini  tried 
to  make  old  Eome  new,  as  the  democratic 
centre  for  the  association  of  the  peoples. 
Thomas  Chalmers  wrote  of  the  Christian  and 
civic  economy  of  large  towns,  and  applied 
it  to  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh.  Our  own 
Mulford  held  high  our  American  ideals  in  his 
lofty  thought  on  The  Nation  and  The  Repub- 
lic of  God.  Some  of  these  attempts  were 
237 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTIO-N 

more  theocratic  and  theological  than  civic 
or  democratic. 

But  only  in  our  own  times  have  our  re- 
ligious social  ideals  been  held  close  enough 
to  earth  to  be  applicable  to  the  local  com- 
munity. Only  just  now  are  we  beginning  to 
ask,  "  What  is  a  town  for?  "  And  for  an 
answer  we  are  putting  our  ideals  into  town 
planning  and  municipal  policies.  Should  not 
the  whole  church  of  a  town  and  city  think 
and  say  something  of  the  town  and  city  as  a 
whole?  Should  those  who  claim  to  have 
"  the  oracles  of  God  "  and  to  interpret  the 
prophecies,  have  nothing  to  say  or  suggest 
as  to  the  immediate  or  remoter  future  of 
their  own  town  or  city?  Should  they  who 
bear  '  *  the  burden  of  the  soul  ' '  have  no  part 
in  determining  the  conditions,  and  in  shaping 
the  public  policies  and  plans  which  will  influ- 
ence the  destiny  of  souls?  If  in  the  life  to 
come  heaven  is  held  up  as  "  the  mansions  of 
our  Father's  house, "  a  "  place  prepared  " 
for  each,  surely  in  the  life  that  now  is  some 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

care  should  be  taken  to  provide  some  place 
for  men,  women,  and  children,  and  the  kind 
of  house  a  ' '  soul  ' '  can  live  in. 

The  community  cannot  fail  to  profit  by 
being  faced  with  a  religious  ideal  of  what  it 
ought  to  be.  And  a  church  cannot  fail  to 
gain  by  having  and  proclaiming  an  ideal  for 
its  community.  The  mere  effort  to  form  its 
own  ideal  of  what  its  town  should  aim  to  be 


will  enlarge  the  Church's  view  of  its  own 
function  and  field.  Its  purpose  and  policy 
will  be  more  public  and  practical,,  and  no  less 
personal.  To  be  looked  to  for  some  contri- 
bution toward  the  community  ideals  and 
progress,  will  lead  the  Church  to  look  beyond 
itself  for  its  raison  d'etre.  To  be  identified 
with  the  life  of  the  whole  community  will  de- 
liver it  from  that  institutional  self-conscious- 
ness which  paralyses  spiritual  purpose  and 
power.  For,  with  strange  and  fatal  facility, 
men  do  forget  the  purpose  of  established  in- 
stitutions, and  the  reason  for  their  existence. 
They  thus  lose  the  value  and  even  the  sight 
239 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

of  the  ends  for  which  they  exist  in  forgetting 
that  all  institutions  are  means. 

This  institutionalism  which  substitutes 
means  for  ends,  and  subverts  the  ends  in 
slavishly  serving  the  means,  is  the  very  in- 
sanity of  history — political,  industrial,  edu- 
cational, and  ecclesiastical.  Thus  the  state, 
the  municipality,  and  the  town  lose  their  hold 
on  the  life  and  the  loyalty  of  the  people  by 
becoming  partisan  machines  instead  of  pub- 
lic service  utilities.  Thus  commercialism 
overreaches  itself  in  sacrificing  the  many  to 
the  few  and  prevents  a  gainful  co-operation 
in  order  to  promote  a  destructively  unre- 
stricted competition.  Thus  schools  and  uni- 
versities, by  making  knowledge  an  end  in- 
stead of  a  means,  and  apotheosising  culture 
for  culture's  sake,  fail  in  their  mission,  which 
is  not  only  "  to  minister  to  industrial  ad- 
vancement, but  to  enable  technical  advance- 
ment to  minister  to  the  life  of  the  people." 
Thus,  too,  churches  lose  not  only  their  power, 
but  their  very  soul  in  building  themselves  up 
240 


CHURCH   AND    COMMUNITY 

out  of  the  community,  instead  of  the  com- 
munity up  out  of  themselves.  The  conscious- 
ness of  being  identified  with  the  greater 
cause  of  the  whole  community  and  with  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  of  which  it  is  a  part,  mag- 
nifies even  the  greatest  institutions,  gives 
power  to  every  least  agency,  dignifies  each 
humblest  duty,  and  adds  zest  to  every  most 
routine  service.  Quite  as  much,  then,  for 
the  Church's  own  sake,  as  for  the  communi- 
ty's sake,  should  there  be  a  religious  ideal  of 
the  community  life  and  progress.  Worship 
— worth-ship — is  the  Church's  means  of  ex- 
pressing and  holding  high  overhead  what  is 
worthiest,  the  divine  ideal  of  human  life,  in- 
dividual and  collective.  Public  worship  is 
the  flag  of  the  Kingdom.  The  Church  which 
maintains  it  is  the  color-guard  of  the  com- 
munity. 

To  initiate,  inspire,  and  support  the  move- 
ments and  agencies  for  realising  these  ideals 
practically  and  progressively  is  the  second 
civic  and  social  function  of  the  Church.  But 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

in  and  through  its  own  organisation,  the 
Church  is  seldom,  if  ever,  to  attempt  to  be 
the  executive  even  of  its  own  initiative,  much 
less  that  of  the  community.  The  social 
ideals  of  the  Gospel  have  borne  their  best 
fruits  in  society  when  the  churches  have  given 
the  initiative  toward  higher  conceptions  of 
civic  and  national  life;  have  supplied  towns, 
cities,  state,  and  nation  with  citizens  inspired 
with  these  ideals  of  Christian  social  relation- 
ship and  with  the  willingness  to  sacrifice  to 
realise  them ;  and  have  given  no  suspicion  of 
making  any  attempt,  either  formal  or  vir- 
tual, to  usurp  the  functions  of  government. 
The  churches  should  be  the  last  to  tolerate, 
much  less  to  claim  or  secure,  special  legisla- 
tion for  their  own  or  others '  benefit,  for  they 
stand  for  all  if  for  any.  Not  in  their  cor- 
porate capacity  should  the  churches  assume 
the  function  of  reformatory  agencies  for  the 
enactment  or  enforcement  of  law.  For,  on 
the  one  hand,  neither  in  their  constituency 
nor  in  their  form  of  organisation  are  they 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

adapted  to  or  effective  in  such  service ;  and  on 
the  other  hand,  if  they  were,  theirs  is  the 
higher  function  and  even  the  harder  work  of 
maintaining  the  standards  and  generating 
the  sacrificial  spirit  that  make  such  strife  at 
law  unnecessary,  or,  if  necessary,  trium- 
phant. 

If,  therefore,  the  churches  may  not  be  the 
executive  of  social  action,  even  in  the  effort 
to  realise  their  own  ideals,  they  may  give  ini- 
tiative to  every  such  effort  by  fulfilling  their 
function  of  inspiring,  educating,  and  unify- 
ing the  people.  Where  other  institutions 
of  the  community — the  homes,  the  neighbour- 
hood centres  for  culture  and  social  inter- 
course, and  the  municipal  provisions  for  so- 
cial needs — can  be  made  to  meet  and  minis- 
ter to  the  wants  of  the  people,  the  Church 
should  inspire  and  support  them  in  so  doing, 
and  not  supersede  or  duplicate  them.  Where 
they  fail,  it  is  not  only  justifiable  but  obliga- 
tory for  the  churches  to  provide  substitutes 
for  them.  Thus  "  institutional  "  churches 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL  ACTION 

and  social  settlements  are  the  ministering 
body  of  the  Son  of  Man,  incarnating  the 
spirit  of  Christ  in  their  ministry  to  the 
physical  and  social,  educational  and  civic, 
moral  and  spiritual  necessities  of  our  city 
centres,  not  only  saving  souls  out  of  the 
wreck,  but  also  helping  to  save  the  wreck 
itself. 

But  very  rarely,  if  ever,  is  it  necessary  or 
advisable  to  turn  the  pulpit  into  a  lectureship 
on  economics  and  politics,  or  the  Sunday 
service  into  a  free  forum  for  the  discussion 
of  social  theories.  Far  more  effective  is  it  for 
the  churches  to  take  the  social  point  of  view, 
and  thence  faithfully  and  fearlessly,  by  word 
and  in  deed  to  extend  the  application  of  the 
righteousness  of  the  prophets,  the  gospel  of 
Christ,  and  the  ethics  of  the  apostles.  From 
their  old  work  of  righting  the  one  man's  re- 
lation to  the  one  God  to  the  new  work  of 
righting  the  relation  of  each  to  all  and  of  all 
to  each,  the  churches  are  now  called  to  extend 
their  mission.  To  unify  all  the  forces  which 
244 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

make  for  righteousness  and  inspire  them  to 
realise  the  highest  ideals  attainable,  is  the 
formative  function  of  the  churches  in  a  com- 
munity. It  will  have  far  more  of  a  reforma- 
tory effect  than  all  the  effort  they  could  make 
to  lead  reforms  which  are  always  more  effec- 
tively promoted  by  other  agencies.  This  func- 
tion of  the  Church  is  more  formatory  than  re- 
formatory. There  can  be  no  reform  without 
the  concept  of  the  ideal  form.  Reformation, 
therefore,  must  ever  be  subsidiary  to  the 
creative  function  of  forming  the  ideal.  In 
the  language  of  Horace  Mann,  "  Where  any- 
thing is  growing,  one  formatory  is  worth  a 
thousand  reformatories." 

The  history  of  the  English  people  began 
when  upon  the  tomb  of  a  forgotten  hero 
might  have  been  inscribed  the  words  which 
Charles  Kingsley  in  Hereward,  wrote  over 
his  name,  '  i  Here  lies  the  first  of  the  new 
English,  who  by  the  grace  of  God  began  to 
drain  the  fens."  So  it  is  said  the  imperial 
supremacy  of  the  English  people  dates  from 
245 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

the  time  the  nation  went  home  from  Water- 
loo to  attend  to  her  own  housekeeping,  to 
work  for  her  daily  bread,  to  care  for  her 
women  and  children,  to  build  roads,  shops, 
and  schools,  to  cleanse  houses  and  streets, 
and  care  for  her  sick.  And  the  church  which 
will  initiate  this  world-work  of  the  kingdom 
will  begin  to  write  a  new  and  glorious  page 
in  the  history  of  the  commonwealth  of  Israel 
and  the  covenants  of  promise. 

The  final  function  of  the  Church,  the  fulfil- 
ment of  which  is  most  essential  to  all  social 
and  civic  organisations,  is  to  generate  that 
public  spirit  and  self-sacrifice  which  serve 
the  common  interests  at  the  cost  of  personal 
ease  and  gain,  or  of  class  and  institutional 
aggrandisement.  Without  this  social  self- 
denial  no  patriotic,  philanthropic,  or  pro- 
gressive organisation  of  a  community  can 
succeed  or  survive.  It  is  the  very  soul  of  the 
body  politic,  without  which  it  is  dead  while 
it  lives.  It  is  the  dynamic  of  progress,  with- 
out which  the  community  is  powerless  to 
246 


CHURCH   AND    COMMUNITY 

make  any  real  advancement  toward  higher 
ideals.  For  the  generation  of  this  social 
power  and  for  putting  each  citizen  in  posses- 
sion of  it  the  community  rightfully  looks  to 
the  Church  more  than  to  any  other  agency. 
The  school  should  inspire  the  children  with 
this  spirit,  but  the  Church  only  can  carry  on 
and  out  the  cultivation  of  self-denial  among 
people  of  all  ages  and  classes.  The  sign  un- 
der which  it  claims  to  live  and  work,  and  by 
which  it  has  ever  conquered,  is  the  cross. 
Only  by  raising  up  cross-bearers  in  social 
and  civic  self-denial  will  it  win  from  the 
state  and  society  its  crown.  Only  by  yield- 
ing this  service  as  its  most  fundamental  obli- 
gation to  the  community  can  it  expect  the 
popular  recognition  of  its  right  to  be  and  its 
room  to  work. 

Imperious  in  the  interest  of  both  Church 
and  community  is  the  religious  imposition  of 
the  duty  and  privilege  of  self-sacrifice  in 
public  service  upon  every  conscience  and 
heart.  To  impart  this  power  of  self-denial 
247 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

the  Church  must  be  mastered  by  it  herself. 
To  give  it  she  must  not  only  have  it,  but  ex- 
emplify it.  Upon  a  much  farther-sighted 
view  of  non-sectarian  policy  and  of  interde- 
nominational comity  and  co-operation,  will 
depend  not  only  the  importance  of  the 
Church  in  the  life  of  the  community,  but  also 
the  moral  and  financial  support  which  the 
Church  may  expect  from  the  people.  It  is 
sure  to  become  more  of  a  question  whether 
the  churches  can  survive  if  they  do  not  sacri- 
fice self-interest  in  saving  the  life  of  the 
people,  than  whether  the  people's  social  life 
can  be  saved  without  the  Church.  Christ's 
words  are  as  true  of  his  Church  as  of  his 
disciples,  that  the  Church  which  "  will  save  " 
its  life  shall  lose  it,  and  the  Church  which  is 
willing  to  lose  its  institutional  or  denomina- 
tional life  for  Christ's  sake  and  the  people's 
may  "find  it." 

With  the  passion  of  love  for  the  Church, 
consistent   with   his   larger   loyalty   to    the 
Kingdom,  William  E.  Huntington  pleaded  be- 
248 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

fore  the  convention  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  the  demand  which  the  organisa- 
tion of  the  world  makes  for  the  co-operative 
unity  of  the  churches.  He  said : 

"  Four  great  questions  confront  the  American 
people  at  this  solemn  hour  when  they  are  passing 
from  an  old  century  to  a  new.  These  questions 
are:  the  sanctity  of  the  family,  the  training  of 
youth  to  good  citizenship  and  good  character,  the 
purification  of  the  municipal  life  of  our  great  cities, 
and  the  relation  of  capital  and  labour.  But  tower- 
ing above  them  all,  as  a  snow  mountain  towers  up 
over  the  more  conspicuous  but  less  important  foot- 
hills that  cluster  about  its  base,  rises  the  question 
of  every  American  citizen  who  is  a  believer  in 
the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ :  How  may  we  correlate 
and  unite  and  consolidate  the  religious  forces  of 
the  republic  ?  Those  other  questions  are  in  a  meas- 
ure independent  of  one  another,  whereas  the  ques- 
tion of  correlation  of  the  religious  forces  of  the 
republic  touches  every  one  of  them  intimately, 
vitally. 

"  Our  whole  attitude  toward  the  unity  question 
depends  upon  our  notion  of  what  the  church  to 


RELIGION   IN   SOCIAL   ACTION 

which  we  are  attached  is  really  like.  One  view 
is  that  each  church  is  a  little  working  model  of 
what  a  true  church  ought  to  be,  kept  under  a  glass 
case,  provided  with  its  own  little  boiler  and  its  own 
little  dynamo,  the  admiration  of  all  who  look  at 
it,  but  by  no  means  and  under  no  circumstances 
to  be  connected  either  by  belt  or  cable  with  the 
throbbing,  vibrant  religious  forces  of  the  outer 
works  through  broad  America,  lest  they  wreck  the 
petite  mechanism  by  the  violence  of  their  thrill. 
We  sit  here  debating  these  petty  technicalities,  de- 
vising the  ingenious  restraints,  and  meanwhile  out- 
of-doors  the  organisation  of  the  world  goes  on." 

Wherever  the  churches  are  endeavoring  to 
meet  the  demands  of  the  world's  organisa- 
tion they  do  not  find  any  basis  for  practical 
unity  in  trying  to  think  alike,  or  worship 
alike,  or  be  governed  alike.  As  the  bond  of 
comity  between  themselves  is  the  Christian 
spirit,  so  the  basis  of  their  common  service 
to  the  community  is  their  co-operative  unity. 
How  reasonably  practical  it  is  for  the 
churches  in  any  community,  large  or  small, 
250 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

to  co-operate  for  the  common  good,  Wash- 
ington Gladden  long  ago  set  forth  in  his  story 
of  The  Christian  League  of  Connecticut. 
The  churches  in  the  state  of  Maine  were 
among  the  first  to  form  an  interdenomina- 
tional committee  to  act  as  a  final  court  in 
preserving  comity  and  promoting  co-opera- 
tion. That  state  of  rural  communities  is 
thus  beginning  to  find  relief  from  the  un- 
godly sectarian  rivalry  which  is  dividing  the 
forces  of  righteousness  hopelessly  and  is 
overburdening  every  little  village  with  a 
multiplicity  of  paralytic  churches.  In  New 
York  the  Federation  of  Churches  and  Re- 
ligious Workers  has  successfully  set  the  type 
for  the  National  Federation  of  Churches 
which  is  pressing  the  cause  of  co-operative 
unity.  But  prior  to  these  newer  movements 
the  foreign  missionaries  of  all  our  churches 
have  found  it  so  necessary  and  feasible  that 
they  should  unite  their  forces  in  the  over- 
shadowing presence  of  the  united  forces  of 
evil,  that  the  churches  of  the  home-land  are 
251 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

likely  to  receive  the  boon  of  their  own  unity 
in  return  for  the  chivalrous  service  bestowed 
abroad. 

A  working  example  and  demonstration  of 
the  advantage  of  combining  our  religious  re- 
sources may  be  seen  in  many  rural  communi- 
ties in  the  consolidation  of  school  districts, 
which  makes  one  strong  and  effective  educa- 
tional centre  possible.  Why  may  not  sev- 
eral denominational  churches,  too  small  for 
any  effective  service,  unite  at  least  in  a  com- 
mon effort  to  inspire  the  people  of  their  com- 
munity with  the  highest  ideals  of  social  and 
civic  relationship,  to  educate  the  citizens  in 
organising  progressive  movements  and  in 
supplying  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  which 
must  always  be  necessary  to  realise  every 
hope  of  progress? 

The  final  test  of  the  capacity  and  right  of 
the  churches  to  fulfil  their  high  function  in 
the  community  is  not  the  attitude  of  the  peo- 
ple toward  the  Church,  but  the  willingness 
and  capacity  of  the  Church  to  serve  the  real 


CHURCH   AND    COMMUNITY 

interest  of  all  the  people.  The  country, 
town,  or  city  church  which  thus  serves  its 
community  the  most  will  serve  itself  the  best, 
and,  within  the  bounds  of  its  legitimate  func- 
tion, will  be  a  source  and  centre  from  which 
will  proceed  ideal,  initiative,  and  power  to 
the  people. 

Democracy,  coming  to  its  own  in  local  self- 
government,  especially  in  cities,  challenges 
our  times  with  no  more  categorical  impera- 
tive than  the  question,  ' l  Will  the  Church  be- 
come the  democracy?"  It  is  conceded  that, 
as  another  has  said,  "  The  reformer's  con- 
science earns  the  right  to  audit  the  books  of 
society,  must  enter  politics  and  conquer  the 
earth.  The  Holy  Land  to  be  redeemed  is 
under  the  feet  of  the  peasant  and  the  la- 
bourer." But  speaking  as  a  churchman,  Pro- 
fessor H.  S.  Nash,  who  makes  this  concession 
also  insists  that  democracy 

"  lays  on  the  will  the  heaviest  tax  of  all.  The 
sincere  believer  in  democracy  must  have  a  dogmatic 


RELIGION  IN   SOCIAL  ACTION 

conviction  that  the  principle  of  individuality  shall 
some  time  have  the  widest  possible  spread.  His 
right  to  be  an  individual  himself  puts  him  under 
the  highest  conceivable  obligation  to  create  indi- 
viduality in  others.  He  is  a  gentleman  in  a  true 
democratic  sense  just  in  the  measure  that  he  has 
the  art  of  finding  himself  in  an  ever-growing  num- 
ber of  persons  of  all  sorts  and  conditions.  He 
must  carry  the  campaign  against  caste  into  larger 
issues.  He  must  face  all  that  is  disagreeable  and 
problematic  in  democracy,  concealing  nothing, 
blinking  nothing  away,  and  at  the  same  time  he 
must  keep  his  will  strong  and  temperate,  so  that 
its  edge  will  never  turn.  To  meet  all  his  social 
obligations  properly,  to  pay  all  his  political  debts 
joyously,  never  to  throw  a  glance  over  his  shoulder 
to  the  monastery — this  is  a  mighty  day's  work.'' 

The  question  whether  the  Church  will  be 
the  democracy  is  raising  the  question 
whether  the  democracy  will  be  the  Church. 
Richard  Whiteing,  one  of  the  keenest,  satirical 
critics  of  conventional  ecclesiasticism  which 
current  fiction  has  produced,  makes  this 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

startlingly  frank  and  final  answer  in  his  Num- 
ber 5  John  Street: 

"  Nothing  but  a  church  will  do.  All  the  other 
schemes  of  democracy  come  to  naught  for  want 
of  that.  The  lecture  platform  is  no  substitute  for 
Sinai.  Democracy  is  a  religion  or  nothing,  with  its 
doctrine,  its  forms,  its  ritual,  its  ceremonies,  its 
government  as  a  church — above  all,  its  organised 
sacrifice  of  the  altar,  the  sacrifice  of  self.  De- 
mocracy must  get  rid  of  the  natural  man,  of  each 
for  himself,  and  have  a  new  birth  into  the  spiritual 
man,  the  ideal  self  of  each  for  all.  Without  re- 
ligion, how  is  man,  the  essentially  religious  animal, 
to  face  the  most  tremendous  of  all  problems, — social 
justice?  " 

The  social  ideals  of  Christianity  have  all 
along  the  history  of  their  revelation  inspired 
the  initiative  of  many  others  than  men  of 
the  spirit.  Over  the  men  of  1798  there  hung 
like  a  mirage  in  the  desolation  of  their  des- 
ert, the  dimly  seen  ideals  of  that  Kingdom 
which  is  "  righteousness,  peace  and  joy." 
255 


RELIGION   IN    SOCIAL   ACTION 

Had  their  initiative  been  "  in  the  spirit, " 
then  "  liberty,  eqnality,  and  fraternity " 
might  have  been  the  translation  of  those  an- 
cient terms  in  Pentecostal  tongues  to  the 
modern  world.  Then  the  revolution  might 
have  been  the  world's  second  Pentecost,  the 
spirit's  social  regeneration,  the  birth  of  the 
coming  nation  in  a  day.  For  the  social  re- 
generation is  the  function  of  the  Messianic 
spirit.  But  that  spirit  has  never  wrought 
the  social  regeneration  without  having  the 
cross  of  self-sacrifice  to  work  through,  with- 
out having  as  at  Pentecost,  and  at  every  so- 
cial revival  since,  Messianic  people  to  sacri- 
fice themselves  to  bear  away  the  sin  of  soci- 
ety and  to  bring  in  the  "  kingdom  of  the 
Father. "  The  cross  of  social  self-denial  is 
the  Christ-man's  burden  now  as  ever — now, 
in  some  respects,  as  never  before.  For  there 
is  an  ethical  tragedy  at  hand,  such  as  has  not 
tested  Christendom  since  the  Eeformation, 
such  as  did  not  test  it  then  at  a  point  of  such 
close  contact  with  the  people  of  the  whole 
256 


CHURCH   AND   COMMUNITY 

world.  It  remains  to  be  seen  where  the 
cross-bearing  spirit  will  find  the  Messianic 
people — "  the  servant  of  Jehovah  "  to  serve 
the  peoples,  the  community-serving  Church, 
and  therefore  the  Church  of  the  community. 


257 


REFERENCES 

CHAPTER  I 
LIFE  AND  RELIGION 

PHELPS,  AUSTIN 
Men    and    Books.     Chapters    1-2.     Scribner. 

New  York.    1882. 
VAN  DYKE,  HENRY 
The  Gospel  for  an  Age  of  Doubt.    Chapter  4. 

Macmillan.    New  York.    1896. 
SPEER,  ROBERT  E. 
Studies   of   the    Man    Christ   Jesus.    Revell. 

New  York.    1896. 
« 

HARNACK  and  HERRMANN 
The  Social  Gospel.   Putnam.   New  York.   1907. 

KING,  HENRY  C. 
Religion  as  Life.  Macmillan.  New  York.  1913. 

NASH,  H.  S. 

Genesis  of  the  Social  Conscience.    Macmillan. 

New  York.    1897. 
PARADISE,  FRANK  ILSLEY 

The    Church    and    the    Individual.     Moffat. 

New  York.    1910. 
RAUSCHENBUSCH,  WALTER 

Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis.    Macmillan. 
New  York.    1907. 

259 


REFERENCES 

Prayers  of  the  Social  Awakening.  Pilgrim 
Press.  Boston.  1910. 

DENNIS,  JAMES  S. 

Christian  Missions  and  Social  Progress.  Vol.  I, 
Chapters  1-4.  Revell.  New  York.  1897. 

CHAPTER  II 

THE  HUMAN  POINT  OP  VIEW 
HAWTHORNE,  NATHANIEL 

Consular  Experiences.    In  volume  "  Our  Old 
Home."    Houghton,  Mifflin.    Boston.    1901. 
IRVINE,  ALEXANDER 
From  the  Bottom  Up.    Doubleday,  Page.    New 

York.    1910. 

Compare  transformation  of  character  as 
sketched  by  RALPH  CONNOR,  HAROLD  BEGBIE, 
CHARLES  M.  SHELDON. 

CHAPTER  III 
PERSONALITY  A  SOCIAL  PRODUCT  AND  FORCE 

WORTMAN,  DENIS 
Reliques  of  the  Christ.     Revell.     New  York. 

1896. 

The  Divine  Processional.  Revell.  New  York. 
1902. 

MCKENZIE,  ALEXANDER 

Address  at  Annual  Meeting  of  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions. 1893. 

260 


REFERENCES 

BALDWIN,  J.  MARK 

Social  and  Ethical  Interpretation  of  Mental 
Development.     Pp.    7-89,    557-563.     Mac- 
millan.    New  York.    1897. 
COOLEY,  CHARLES  H. 

Human  Nature  and  the  Social  Order.  Scribner. 
New  York.  1902. 

BROOKS,  PHILLIPS 

Self-Culture  and  Self-Sacrifice.  Address  be- 
fore St.  Andrew's  Brotherhood.  St.  An- 
drew's Cross,  November,  1892.  Boston. 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CALL  AND  EQUIPMENT  FOR  EFFECTIVE  SERVICE 
BURTON,  NATHANIEL  J. 

Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching.     Pilgrim  Press. 

Boston.    1888. 
BROOKS,  PHILLIPS 

Yale  Lectures  on  Preaching.  Button.  New 
York.  1878. 

BRUCE,  A.  B. 

The  Training  of  the  Twelve.     Clark.     Edin- 
burgh.   1883. 
STOWE,  HARRIET  BEECHER 

The   Minister's   Wooing.     Houghton,   Mifflin. 

Boston. 

ALLEN,  WILLIAM  H. 

Efficient  Democracy.  Dodd,  Mead.  New  York. 
1907. 

261 


REFERENCES 

CHAPTER  V 

CHANGING  CONDITIONS  OP  A  WORKING  FAITH 
RAUSCHENBUSCH,  WALTER 

Christianising  the  Social  Order.     Macmillan. 
New  York.    1912. 

/      BATTEN,  SAMUEL  Z. 

The  Social  Task  of  Christianity.    Revell.    New 

York.    1911. 
MATHEWS,  SHAILER 

The  Church  and  the  Changing  Order.     Mac- 
millan.   New  York.    1907. 

TUCKER,  WILLIAM  JEWETT 

The  Function  of  the  Church  in  Modern  So- 
ciety.   Houghton,  Mifflin.    Boston.    1911. 

GLADDEN,  WASHINGTON 

The    Church   and    Modern   Life.     Houghton, 
Mifflin.    Boston.    1908. 

WARD,  H.  F.,  and  others 
Social  Creed  of  the  Churches.    Eaton  &  Mains. 

New  York.    1912. 
Social  Ministry.    Eaton  &  Mains.    New  York. 

1910. 

TIPPT,  W.  M.,  and  others 
The  Socialised  Church.    Eaton  &  Mains.    New 

York.    1908. 
MACPARLAND,  CHARLES  S.,  and  others 

The  Christian  Ministry  and  the  Social  Order. 
Yale  University  Press.    New  Haven.    1909. 

262 


REFERENCES 

BROWN,  CHARLES  R. 

The   Social  Message   of  the   Modern  Pulpit. 
Scribner.    New  York.    1906. 

DAVENPORT,  F.  M. 

Primitive  Traits  in  Religious  Revivals.    Mac- 
millan.    New  York.    1905. 

STRONG,  JOSIAH 

Our  World— The  New  World  Life.     Double- 
day,  Page.    New  York.    1913. 

HYDE,  H.  D. 

Outlines  of  Social  Theology.    Macmillan.    New 
York.    1895. 

KING,  HENRY  C. 

Theology  and  the  Social  Consciousness.    Mac- 
millan.   New  York.    1902. 

SMITH,  G.  B. 

Social  Idealism  and  the  Changing  Theology. 
MacmiUan.    New  York.    1913. 

EUCKEN,  RUDOLF  C. 

Christianity  and  the  New  Idealism.    Harper. 
New  York.    1909. 

CHAPTER  VI 
THE  RELIGION  OF  HUMAN  RELATIONSHIPS 

MOZLEY,  J.  B. 

Ruling  Ideas  in  Early  Ages,  pp.  37-63,  83-125. 
Dutton.    New  York.    1881. 


REFERENCES 

GLADDEN,  WASHINGTON 

Ruling  Ideas  of  the  Present  Age.    Houghton, 
Mifflin.    Boston.    1895. 

HEARN,  W.  E. 

The    Aryan    Household,    pp.     26-127,     162. 
Longmans.    London.    1891. 

JACKS,  L.  P. 

Church  and  World.     Hibbert  Journal,  Octo- 
ber, 1906.    London. 

FREMANTLE,  W.  H. 
The   World   as  the   Subject  of  Redemption. 

Longmans.    London.    1892. 
The   Gospel  of  the   Secular  Life.    Scribner. 

New  York.    1883. 

SEELEY,  J.  R. 

Ecce  Homo.    Roberts  Bros.    Boston.    1867. 
CHAD  WICK,  W.  E. 

Social  Relationships  in  the  Light  of  Christian- 
ity.   Longmans.    New  York.    1910. 

EARP,  EDWIN  L. 

Social  Aspects  of  Religious  Institutions.    Eaton 
&  Mains.    New  York.    1908. 

SCHMIDT,  C. 

Social  Results  of  Early  Christianity.    Isbister. 
London.    1885. 

BRACE,  CHARLES  LORING 

Gesta  Christi.    Armstrong.    New  York.    1883. 


REFERENCES 

STORES,  RICHARD  S. 
Divine  Origin  of  Christianity.     Randolph  & 

Co.    New  York.    1884. 
MAZZINI,  JOSEPH 

Thoughts  upon  Democracy  in  Europe.    Smith, 

Elder  &  Co.    London.    1891. 
On  the  Duties  of  Man.    Smith,  Elder  &  Co. 
God   and   the   People.     Excerpts   by   C.    W. 
STUBBS.    T.  Fisher  Unwin.    London.    1896. 
Memoir.    By  Mrs.  E.  A.  VENTURI.    H.  S.  King 

&  Co.    London.    1875. 
MEN  AND  RELIGION  MESSAGES 

Vol.  II.     Social  Service.     Association  Press. 
New  York.    1912. 

CHAPTER  VII 
THE  FAMILY  :  ^FIELD,  FUNCTION,  AND  TRIBUTARY 

AGENCIES 
WESTERMARCK,  E. 

History    of    Human    Marriage.     Macmillan. 

London.    1891. 
HOWARD,  GEORGE  E. 

History    of    Matrimonial    Institutions.     Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  Press.    1904. 
DRUMMOND,  HENRY 

The  Ascent  of  Man.     Chapters  7-9.     James 

Pott  &  Co.    New  York.    1894. 
DEALEY,  J.  Q. 

The    Family    in    Its     Sociological     Aspects. 
Houghton,  Mifflin.    Boston.    1912. 

265 


REFERENCES 

PARSONS,  MRS.  E.  C. 

The  Family.    Putnam.    New  York.    1906. 

BOSANQUET,  HELEN 

The  Family.    Macmillan.    London.    1906. 

.    DEVINE,  EDWARD  T. 

The  Family  and  Social  Work.  Survey  Asso- 
ciates. New  York.  1912. 

BLISS,   WILLIAM  D.   P. 

Encyclopedia  of  Social  Reform.  Articles 
' '  Family, "  ' '  Malthusianism. ' '  Funk  & 
Wagnalls.  New  York.  1908. 

MALTHUS,  THOMAS  ROBERT 

Essay  on  Principles  of  Population.  Reeves. 
London.  1888. 

HADLEY,  ARTHUR  T. 

Economics.  Pp.  41-51.  Putnam.  New  York. 
1899. 

HOBHOUSE,  L.  T. 

Social  Evolution  and  Political  Theory.  Pp. 
13-79,  on  "  Progress  and  the  Struggle  for 
Existence  "  and  "  Value  and  Limitations  of 
Eugenics."  Columbia  University  Press. 
New  York.  1911. 

BUSHNELL,  HORACE 

Christian  Nurture.  Chapter  4,  on  "  The  Or- 
ganic Unity  of  the  Family."  Scribner. 
New  York.  1886. 

266 


REFERENCES 

NEWSHOLME,  ARTHUR 
Declining    Birth-rate.     Moffat,    Yard    &    Co. 

New  York.    1911. 
SALEEBY,  C.  W. 
Method  of  Race  Regeneration.    Moffat.    New 

York.    1911. 
ELLIS,  HAVELOCK 
Problem  of  Race  Regeneration.    Moffat.    New 

York.    1911. 
THE  SURVEY 
The   Right  to  be  Well  Born.     Symposium. 

March  2,  1912. 
SELIGMAN,  E.  E.  A. 

The  Social  Evil.    Putnam.    New  York.    1912. 
ADDAMS,  JANE 
A  New  Conscience  and  an  Ancient  Evil.    Mae- 

millan.    New  York.    1912. 
BUREAU  OF  SOCIAL  HYGIENE,  PUBLICATIONS  OP 
Century  Co.    New  York.    1913. 

VICE  COMMISSION  OF  THE  CITY  OF  CHICAGO,  RE-  t " 

PORT  OF 

The  Social  Evil  in  Chicago.    American  Vigi- 
lance Association.    New  York.    1912. 
JUVENILE  PROTECTIVE  ASSOCIATION  OF  CHICAGO,^ 

REPORTS  OF 

BRECKINRIDGE  and  ABBOTT  L-- 

The  Delinquent  Child  and  the  Home.  Chari- 
ties Publication  Committee.  New  York. 
1912. 

267 


REFERENCES 

The  Child  in  the  City.  Chicago  Child  Wel- 
fare Conference  Papers.  Chicago  School  of 
Civics  and  Philanthropy.  1912. 

DEFOREST  and  VEILLER 

The  Tenement  House  Problem.  Two  volumes. 
Macmillan.  New  York.  1903. 

AMERICAN  SOCIOLOGICAL  SOCIETY,  PUBLICATIONS 

OF 

Volume  III.  The  Family.  University  of  Chi- 
cago Press.  1908. 

NATIONAL  CONFERENCE  OF  CHARITIES  AND  COR- 
RECTION, PROCEEDINGS  OF 
Family.     See    Alexander    Johnson's    Index, 
Guide.    Indianapolis.    1908. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

SURVIVAL  AND  REVIVAL  OF  NEIGHBOURSHIP 
HEARN,  W.  E. 

The  Aryan  Household.  Longmans.  London. 
1891. 

MAINE,  HENRY  SUMNER 

Village  Communities  in  the  East  and  West. 
Holt.  New  York.  1889. 

SHALER,  NATHANIEL  S. 

The  Neighbour.  Houghton,  Mifflin.  Boston. 
1904. 

RICHMOND,  MARY  E. 

The  Good  Neighbour.  Lippincott.  Philadel- 
phia. 1912. 

268 


REFERENCES 

WOODS  and  KENNEDY 

Handbook  of  Settlements.  Charities  Publica- 
tion Committee.  New  York.  1911. 

Young  Working  Girls.  Houghton,  Mifflin. 
Boston.  1913. 

The  Settlement  Horizon.  Survey  Associates. 
New  York.  1913. 

ADDAMS,  JANE 

Twenty   Years   at   Hull   House.     Macmillan. 

New  York.     1910. 

The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets. 
Macmillan.  New  York.  1909. 

TAYLOR,  GRAHAM 

The  Social  Settlement,  Church  and  Religion. 
The  Survey.  July  5,  1913. 

PERRY,  CLARENCE  A. 

The  Larger  Use  of  the  School  Plant.  Charities 
Publication  Committee.  New  York.  1910. 

WARD,  EDWARD  J. 

The  Social  Centre.  Appleton.  New  York. 
1913. 

NATIONAL  PLAYGROUND  ASSOCIATION,  PUBLICA- 
TIONS OF 
New  York  City. 

NATIONAL  CONFERENCE  OF  CHARITIES  AND  COR- 
RECTION, PROCEEDINGS  OF 
"  Neighbourhood."    S;ee  Alexander  Johnson's 
Index,  Guide.    Indianapolis.    1908. 

269 


REFERENCES 

CONYNGTON,  MARY 

How  to  Help.    Macmillan.    New  York.    1912. 

BYINGTON,  MARGARET  F. 

What  Social  Workers  Should  Know  About 
Their  Own  Communities.  Charities  Pub- 
lication Committee.  New  York.  1912. 

ACADEMY  OP  POLITICAL  SCIENCE  IN  THE  CITY  OP 

NEW  YORK,  PROCEEDINGS  OP 
Organisation  for  Social  Work.    July,  1912. 

CHAPTER  IX 
INDUSTRY  AND  RELIGION:  THEIR  COMMON  GROUND 

AND  INTERDEPENDENCE 
BAX,  E.  BELFORT 

The  Peasants'  War  in  Germany.  Macmillan. 
New  York.  1899. 

LlNSAY,  T.  M. 

History  of  the  Reformation.    Vol.  I.    Scribner. 

New  York.    1906. 
RYAN,  JOHN  A. 

The  Living  Wage.     Macmillan.    New  York. 

1906. 

NATIONAL  CONFERENCE  OP  CHARITIES  AND  COR- 
RECTION, PROCEEDINGS  OF 
1910-1913.     Reports  of  Committee  on  Stand- 
ards of  Living  and  Labour. 

RAUSCHENBUSCH,  WALTER 

Christianising  the  Social  Order.  Macmillan. 
New  York.  1912. 

270 


REFERENCES 

BLISS,  WILLIAM  D.  P. 

Encyclopedia  of  Social  Reform.  Articles 
on  "  Christianity  and  Social  Reform," 
11  Church  and  Social  Reform,"  "  The 
Church  and  the  Workingman, ' '  * '  Poverty, ' ' 
"  Socialism."  Funk  &  Wagnalls.  New 
York.  1908. 
GLADDEN,  WASHINGTON 

Tools  and  the  Man.    Houghton,  Mifflin.    Bos- 
ton.   1893. 
The  Labour  Question.    Pilgrim  Press.    Boston. 

1911. 

STELZLE,  CHARLES 
American    Social    and    Religious    Conditions. 

Revell.    New  York.    1912. 
ABBOTT,  EDITH 
Women  in  Industry.    Appleton.     New  York. 

1910. 

GOLDMARK,  JOSEPHINE 
Fatigue  and  Efficiency.    Charities  Publication 

Committee.    New  York.    1912. 
NATIONAL  CHILD  LABOUR  COMMITTEE,  PUBLICA- 
TIONS OF 
New  York  City. 

CHAPTER  X 

ORGANISED  INDUSTRY  AND  ORGANISED  RELIGION 
BOOTH,  CHARLES 
Life  and  Labour  in  London.     Volumes  on  Pov- 


REFERENCES 

erty,  and  Poverty-Producing  Trades.    Mac- 
millan.    London.    1902. 
THE  PITTSBURGH  SURVEY 

The  Steel  Workers,  by  JOHN  A.  FITCH  ;  Home- 
stead: The  Households  of  a  Mill  Town,  by 
MARGARET  F.  BYINGTON;  Work  Accidents 
and  the  Law,  by  CRYSTAL  EASTMAN; 
Women  and  the  Trades,  by  ELIZABETH  B. 
BUTLER.  Charities  Publication  Committee. 
New  York.  1909-1911. 
HOBSON,  JOHN  A. 

Evolution  of  Modern  Capitalism.     Scribner. 

New  York.     1894. 
WEBB,  SIDNEY  and  BEATRICE 
Industrial  Democracy.     Longmans.     London. 

1897. 
MITCHELL,  JOHN 

Organised  Labour.    American  Book  and  Bible 

House.    Philadelphia.    1903. 
WOMER,  PARLEY  PAUL 

The  Church  and  the  Labour  Conflict.    Mac- 

millan.    New  York.    1913. 
SMITH,  SAMUEL  G. 
The  Industrial  Conflict.    Revell.    New  York. 

1908. 

SPARGO,  JOHN 

Syndicalism.     Industrial  Unionism  and  Social- 
ism.   Huebsch.    New  York.    1913. 
SPARGO  and  ARNER 

Elements    of    Socialism.      Macmillan.     New 
York.     1912. 


REFERENCES 

CHAPTER  XI 
CITY  AND  CHURCH  REAPPROACHING  EACH  OTHER 

DE  TOCQUEVILLE,  ALEXIS 

Democracy  in  America.  Appleton.  New  York. 
1904. 

BRYCE,  JAMES 

American  Commonwealth.  Vol.  I.  Part  2. 
Chapters  48-52.  Macmillan.  New  York. 
1889. 

CHALMERS,  THOMAS 

Christian  and  Civic  Economy  of  Large  Towns. 
Edited  by  C.  R.  Henderson.  Scribner.  New 
York.  1900. 

STRONG,  JOSIAH 

The  Challenge  of  the  City.     Young  People's 

Missionary  Movement.    New  York.    1907. 
The  Next  Great  Awakening.    Baker  &  Taylor. 

New  York.    1902. 

STELZLE,  CHARLES 

Christianity's  Storm  Centre — A  Study  of  the 
Modern  City.  Revell.  New  York.  1907. 

CUTTING,  R.  FULTON 

The  Church  and  Society.  Macmillan.  New 
York.  1912. 

RUSKIN,  JOHN 

The  Stones  of  Venice.  Library  Edition. 
Grant  Allen.  London.  1903. 

273 


REFERENCES 

CROLY,  H.  D. 

The  Promise  of  American  Life.     Macmillan. 
New  York.    1909. 

ANTIN,  MARY 

The  Promised  Land.    Houghton,  Mifflin.    Bos- 
ton.   1912. 

ROBERTS,  PETER 

The    New    Immigration.      Macmillan.     New 
York.    1912. 

SMITH,  J.  A. 

The   Spirit  of  American   Government.    Mac- 
millan.   New  York.    1911. 

MULFORD,  ELISHA 

The    Nation.     Hurd    &    Houghton.     Boston. 

1877. 
The    Republic    of    God.     Houghton,    Mifflin. 

Boston.    1882. 

CHAPTER  XII 
CHURCH  AND  COMMUNITY  :  THEIR  INTERRELATION 

AND  COMMON  AIM 
FISKE,  JOHN 
American  Political  Ideas.    Houghton,  Mifflin. 

Boston.    1911. 
The  Beginnings  of  New  England.    Houghton, 

Mifflin.    Boston.    1891. 
ANDERSON,  W.  L. 

The  Country  Town.    Baker  &  Taylor.    New 
York.    1906. 

274 


REFERENCES 

WILSON,  WARREN  H. 

Evolution  of  the  Country  Community.     Pil- 
grim Press.    Boston.    1912. 

BUTTERFIELD,  KENYON  L. 

The  Country  Church  and  the  Rural  Problem. 
University  of  Chicago  Press.    1911. 

McVEY,  FRANK  L. 

The  Making  of  a  Town.    McClurg.    Chicago. 
1913. 

PLUNKETT,  HORACE 

Rural   Life   Problem   of   the   United   States. 
Macmillan.    New  York.    1910. 

BAILEY,  L.  H. 

Country  Life  Movement  in  the  United  States. 
Macmillan.    New  York.    1911. 

GILL  and  PINCHOT 

The  Country  Church.    Macmillan.    New  York. 
1913. 

CARVER,  T.  N. 

Principles  of  Rural  Economics.     Ginn  &  Co. 
New  York.    1911. 

GILLETTE,  JOHN  M. 

Constructive  Rural  Sociology.    Sturgis  &  Wal- 
ton.   New  York.    1913. 

FISKE,  G.  W. 

The  Challenge  of  the  Country.     Association 
Press.    New  York.    1912. 

275 


REFERENCES 

HOWE,  FREDERICK  C. 

The  City  the  Hope  of  Democracy.    Scribner. 
New  York.    1909. 

STEAD,  WILLIAM  T. 

If  Christ  Came  to   Chicago.     Laird  &  Lee. 
Chicago.    1894. 

ZUEBLIN,  CHARLES 

American    Municipal    Progress.     Macmillan. 
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279 


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